I30 NATURAL HISTORY IN ANECDOTE. 



The Dalmatian Colonel Smith places the Dalmatian dog 

 ^°B- with the hounds on the ground of similarity 

 of general structure. Elegant in form and beautiful in mak- 

 ing it is said to be less keen in scent and less sagacious than 

 other dogs. Sagacious or not, it was one of these dogs that 

 Lord Maynard found awaiting him at his house in England 

 after having lost him in France. 



The Turnspit. "The Turnspit," says Captain Brown, "derived its 

 name from the service in which it was engaged before the 

 invention of machinery to do the same work, and, what is 

 remarkable, now that the office is extinct, so also has nearly 

 become the species which used to perform it." " I have now 

 in my kitchen," said the Duke de Laincourt, to M. Descartes, 

 "two turnspits which take their turns regularly every other 

 day in the wheel: one of them, not liking his employment, 

 hid himself on the day he should have wrought, when his 

 companion was forced to mount the wheel in his stead; but 

 crying and wagging his tail, he intimated that those in atten- 

 dance should first foUow him. He immediately conducted 

 them to a garret, where he dislodged the idle dog, and killed 

 him immediately.'' Another instance is recorded by Captain 

 Brown as follows : " When the cook had prepared the meat 

 for roasting, he found that the dog which should have wrought 

 the spit had disappeared. He attempted to employ another, 

 but it bit his leg and fled. Soon after, however, the refirac- 

 tory dog entered the kitchen driving before him the truant 

 turnspit, which immediately of its own accord went into the 

 wheel." It is easy to see from these stories that the occupa- 

 tion was not a popular one and it is well that it is no longer 

 a necessary one. 



The Pointer. The pointer {Cams avicularis) as resembling 

 the race of hounds, more than any other of the shooting or 

 gun dogs is placed next to them in the classification of 

 Colonel Smith, who says: "In their present qualities of 

 standing fixed and pointing to game, we see the result of a 



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