Class I. DOG. 77 



species being used to be led in a thong, and 

 slipped at the game. Our author says, that 

 this dog was a kind that hunted both by scent 

 and sight, and in the form of its body observed a 

 medium between the hound, and the gre-hound. 

 This probably is the kind known to us by the 

 name of the Irish gre-hound, ' a dog now ex- 

 tremely scarce in that kingdom, the late king of 

 Poland having procured from thence as many as 

 possible. I have seen two or three in the whole 

 island : they were of the kind called by M. de 

 Buffon, Le grand Danois, and probably import- 

 ed there by the Danes who long possessed that 

 kingdom. Their use seems originally to have 

 been for the chase of wolves with which Ireland 

 swarmed till the latter end of the seventeenth 

 century. As soon as those animals were extir- 

 pated, the numbers of the dogs decreased ; 

 from that period, they were kept only for state. 

 The Vertagus, or Tumbler, is a fourth species, 

 which took its prey by mere subtlety, depend- 

 ing neither on the sagacity of its nose, or its 

 swiftness : if it came into a warren, it neither 

 barked, or ran on the rabbets, but by a seem- 

 ing neglect of them, or attention to something 

 else, deceived the object till it got within reach, 

 so as to take it by a sudden spring. This dog 



