The Hound Family 595 



There is no reason to question the statement that the hounds originated 

 in the Far East and followed the western migration, or accompanied it along 

 the Mediterranean to Spain and to Ireland, likewise across Europe, leaving 

 the Russian wolfhound's ancestors a little farther west than they did those 

 of the Persian greyhound ; dropping the Molossian for Greeks to admire and 

 taking more of the same breed as they spread over Europe, to give to 

 Spain the alaunt and to Germany and Denmark the Great Dane. With 

 them came also the tracking hound and the swift racing dog, developed by 

 centuries of breeding for speed till it became what it is to-day: the perfection 

 of lines with but one object in view. 



In the very oldest Greek and Latin books, we find that fads of fancy 

 then existed and certain colours were valued more than others, the high- 

 est esteemed being the fawn or red with black muzzle, the colour the 

 late Robert Fulton always maintained was the true bulldog colour and 

 known to us as the red smut, or the fallow smut, according to the shade. 



Other colours referred to by Xenophon are white, blue, fawn, spotted or 

 striped; and they ranked according to individual fancy, just as they did for 

 many hundreds of years. It was not until about Markham's time that we 

 find authors discrediting colour as a guide to excellence or defect. 



How much original relationship existed between the smooth greyhound 

 and the other racing dogs is something which has been taken for granted and 

 not looked into very closely. The Persian and Russian are the same dog, 

 undoubtedly. So also the Irish wolfhound and the Scottish deerhound, 

 while the smooth greyhound differs from the others as they also differ be- 

 tween themselves. Because they are much alike in shape is not to our mind 

 sufficient evidence upon which to say that they are the same dogs changed 

 by climatic influences, as BufFon held. BufFon maintained that a dog taken to 

 a cold country developed in one direction, while a similar dog sent to a warm 

 climate produced something quite different. Size, conformation, and coat 

 were all changed, according to that authority, and he gave the French 

 matin credit for being the progenitor of a large number of breeds upon that 

 supposition. Climate has influence beyond a doubt, but there are other 

 things just as important, one of which is selection. As far back as men 

 knew anything they must have known that the way to get fast dogs was to 

 breed fast dogs together; and if in eight generations it is possible to com- 

 pletely breed out a bulldog cross on a greyhound, as we shall show later on 

 was accomplished, what is to prevent men all over the world taking any 



