vili PREFACE, 
It is true that the hound and the greyhound, the pointer and the 
setter, as well as many of the foreign varieties of the dog, have 
been favoured with special treatises, but beyond them the ground 
is almost untrodden, or else it is choked with weeds and rubbish 
which render it difficult to ascertain what is beneath them. 
In the following pages I -have been compelled to have recourse 
to the work of Mr. Youatt in the instances of some of the foreign . 
dogs, both for the descriptions and also for the engravings which 
are contained in it. At the time when he wrote, the Zoological 
Society of Londow possessed an extensive collection of dogs; which 
was made use of by him to great advantage; and I can speak to 
the correctness of most of his illustrations, from having compared 
them with the originals soon after he first gave them to the pub- 
lic; but unfortunately there is now no such collection in England. 
As far as possible, however, throughout.the First Book the de- 
scriptions and illustrations are drawn from the life, the speci- 
men selected being of the most: perfect symmetry and of: the 
‘purest breed within my reach. For many of them I am indebted 
to gentlemen who have given up their best energies to improve 
the peculiar strain which has enlisted their attention, and for the 
facilities which they have afforded ‘me I. here beg to record my 
most sincere thanks. ' 
Boox I. contains the Natural History of the Dog, with a 
minute description of the varieties which are generally recog- 
nised. The chief claims of this book rest upon its being a faithful 
transcript in writing of oral records which have been treasured up 
by the breeders of the dog in all its varieties, and which, being 
now made public, will render it ‘comparatively easy in future’to 
ascertain the <position which any particular dog can claim, and 
how far it complies with the points which are attributed to it: 
