FOREIGN NON-SPORTING AND UTILITY BREEDS. 
At Arlon-Vitron, on the borders of Luxem- 
bourg, and probably at many other places in 
Europe, dogs are attached to the postal 
service to carry the mails to the outlying 
districts, and even to deliver separate letters 
at various destinations. This is work to 
which most breeds may be easily trained, 
as many of us know who are accustomed 
to send messages tied to the collars of 
our canine friends. It is merely a matter 
of putting the dog’s 
homing instincts to 
practical use. 
The Dogs of War. 
—It is certain that the 
great Molossian dogs 
of the ancient Greeks 
and Romans were oc- 
casionally taken into 
battle, provided with 
spiked collars as weap- 
ons of offence in addi- 
tion to the weapons 
which nature had given 
them. Plutarch has 
made frequent refer- 
ence to these formid- 
able dogs of war. In 
the middle ages, too, 
dogs often entered into 
the strife of the battle- 
field dressed, like the chargers, in full suits 
of protective armour surmounted with a 
head piece and crest. Suits of such armour 
for war dogs may be found in many Con- 
tinental museums, and a particularly fine 
example is preserved in Madrid. There is 
a less perfect suit in the armoury of the 
Tower of London. Protective armour was 
also used in early times for the especial 
hounds of the chase which were slipped 
upon such dangerous quarry as the wild 
boar, the dogs being furnished with richly 
damasked corselets and back plates, “to 
defend them from the violence of the 
swine’s tusks,’ as we are reminded by 
Cavendish, who saw them armed in this 
manner at Compiégne; and a hound thus 
apparelled is represented in the mid-dis- 
tance of the fifteenth century tapestry pho- 
tographed on page 141 of this present work. 
GUARDING THE BAGGAGE: 
AMBULANCE DOGS. 
523 
It is doubtful whether the dogs who 
fought in such a battle as that of Marathon 
were set against the enemy’s soldiers or 
against the chariot horses; which seems 
more probable. But nowadays when we 
“let slip the dogs of war,” it is for a more 
humane purpose than either of these. 
At the present time there are few of the 
great armies of the world in which dogs are 
not trained for the particular work of carrying 
ONE OF MAJOR RICHARDSON’S 
messages or cartridges into the fighting lines, 
and for the yet more important work of 
taking succour to the wounded. 
The idea of utilising the dog upon the 
modern battlefield originated with Herr J. 
Bungartz, the celebrated German animal 
painter. It was in 1885 that he began to 
devote his energies to selecting and training 
the most suitable dogs, and it is interesting 
to note that of all breeds the Scottish Collie 
was found to be by far the most adaptable 
and clever, although in finding the wounded 
the German Pointer has proved almost 
equally successful. The French Army favour 
a cross with the Pyrenean dog for ammuni- 
tion serving on account of his strength, 
which enables him to carry as many as five 
hundred cartridges. The Barbet seems also 
to be a useful breed in this capacity. In 
Russia, Austria, and Italy, St. Bernards, 
