364 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



perhaps the simplest way of approaching the subject would be to 

 glance at the Dogs which one finds there. 



The reader will be able to supply from his own knowledge 

 many mediseval pictures containing Dogs. I will only take one 

 by Vittore Pisano, who was born in 1380 — a picture which all 

 will know, as it is in our National Gallery. It is the Conversion 

 of St. Eustace. He, like St. Hubert, meets a Stag with a crucifix 

 between its horns. Eustace is on horseback. Near him are two 

 Dogs of mastiff breed, and one that is a kind of staghound. In 

 front are two setters ; to the right two magnificent greyhounds 

 pursuing a Hare, which is bolting for a wood which contains a 

 Brown Bear ; on the left the heads of two big hounds with 

 drooping ears, obviously of the nature of bloodhounds. In this 

 picture are to be found most of the recognized breeds of mediseval 

 Italy. The commonest of them is Veltro, the greyhound — the 

 Vertagus of Martial — that was trained to bring to his master the 

 Hare unhurt. It is of them that Dante speaks where he tells of 

 the pursuit of Lano and his friends through the wood of human 

 trees (Inf. xiii. 126). He says the Hell-hounds come on like 

 greyhounds let out of a leash ; and again (Inf. xxiii. 18), more 

 cruel than a Dog to a Hare, which it seizes in its teeth. The 

 greyhound was used for pursuing, but did not find game. For 

 this purpose a kind of setter was used. He marked the Hare 

 for the greyhound, and put up the birds for the Hawk. The 

 Dog was called Bracco, whence the French Brague, and does 

 not occur in the ' Comedy ' ; but Dante, in the " Convito," says 

 every excellence in everything is to be desired, " Siccome nel 

 bracco il bene oderare, nel veltro il bene correre." 



He is speaking of a bigger breed of Dogs in Ugolino's dream 

 (Inf. xxxiii.), where the latter saw the Archbishop hunting the 

 Wolves and whelps upon the mountain (" con cagne magre studi- 

 ose etconte"), which Longfellow translates, "With sleuth-hounds 

 gaunt, eager, and well-trained." They were probably a breed of 

 mastifls (" mastini," the Roman Molossus), which were used also 

 for catching thieves (Inf. xxi. 44). It was with these that Nastigio 

 degli Onesti saw his phantom ancestor Cavalcante hunting the 

 fair Lady Disdain in the woods of Chiasso, near Ravenna. This 

 breed originally came from Epirus, but there was a bigger one 

 still coming from Sarmatia, known as Alano ; so much stronger, 



