18 DOMESTICATED DOGS, 
now kept in the United Kingdom, independently of the rising 
generation of saplings, which is almost as numerous. This in- 
crease of the popularity of coursing is due—(1) to the small cost 
of keeping the greyhound in comparison with that of the racehorse; 
(2) to the love of competition which is inherent in the “ Britisher;” 
(3) to the modern style of farming, which, by throwing number- 
less small fields into large ones, and abolishing high “ridge and 
furrows,” has facilitated the pursuit of the hare in proportion to 
the retrogression in the elements necessary for partridge shooting. 
The result is, that in almost all districts even those tenant farmers 
who are forbidden to shoot are allowed to course, but generally 
they avail themselves of this permission not to kill the hares for 
direct “currant jelly” objects, but to afford practice in private for 
the greyhounds, which require it before being submitted to the eye 
of the public coursing judge. No one who enters keenly into the 
rivalry existing at Newmarket, Altcar, or Ashdown will condescend 
to attend a “private day,” but will gladly kill a few hares when 
he is getting his dogs ready for either of these meetings or their 
less fashionable rivals; and hence, though there is some little 
difference between the public and the private greyhound, I shall 
mainly confine my description to the former. 
The Public Greyhound, then, should combine a frame capable of 
giving the highest degree of speed which is consistent with the 
form to “stay a course,” and with the capability of stopping this 
speed sufficiently quickly to follow the turns of the hare without 
too great a loss of ground. These three qualities must be com- 
bined in the dog to obtain success, for if any one is absolutely 
absent, or even proportionately so as compared with the best 
average, the chance of winning the series of courses necessary to 
get through a stake is extremely small. Beyond these qualities, 
to the possession of which the shape of each individual is to a 
great extent a reliable guide, there must also be an inherent ner- 
vous or mental power which shall give the desire to display them. 
These nervous qualities are, without doubt, to a limited extent 
dependent on the size of certain parts of the brain; but we are 
not, I think, in possession of sufficient data to lay down laws with 
reference to these organs, and in practice we must be content with 
apportioning a smaller value to the form and shape of the head 
