PUBLIC COURSING. 351 



be of the most perfect make, as described under the head of the 

 points of the greyhound at page 22 ; but with the most perfect 

 shape there is often a want of speed, apparently owing to the 

 absence of that nervous stimulus which sets the frame in motion. 

 Such dogs want quickness and elasticity in using their organs, 

 and, though they often move elegantly, there is a deficiency in the 

 rapidity of repetition in the muscular contractions which constitute 

 high speed. Hence the necessity for attending to breed, and to its 

 purity, which is the only guarantee (short of an actual trial) that 

 the perfect frame will give perfect action. The same remarks 

 apply to working power : a dog may look to be exceedingly cleverly 

 made, with good shoulders, and all the other parts essential to this 

 faculty, and yet there may be a want of cleverness and tact, as well 

 as a deficiency in courage, which will render him absolutely use- 

 less. But when the breed is known to be almost invariably good 

 in these respects, and the formation of the individual is good, 

 there is a reasonable ground for expecting that he will exhibit 

 them in more or less perfection. ^Nothing is more provoking than 

 to find a splendidly-formed dog beaten in his trial by a wretched- 

 looking brute, the sole advantage attending the latter being that 

 he is descended from good blood, while the former perhaps owns 

 a sire and dam of well-known and ascertained imperfect nervous 

 organisation. 



WMn the young courser determines upon getting together a 

 kennel of greyhounds, he must therefore carefully attend to all 

 these points : but with all his care he will be disappointed unless 

 he knows how to manage them, or can entrust them to some one 

 who does. Public greyhounds, as I have already explained, are 

 easily spoiled by using them too frequently ; and yet they must 

 have some amount of practice before they run in a stake, or they 

 will inevitably be beaten from awkwardness. Some breeds are 



