THE BLOODHOUND. 
217 
Casual passengers were constantly arrested in their walk by the singular animated mop 
that rolled along without any visible means of progression, and I have more than once been 
witness to a warm dispute respecting the position in nature which the strange animal might 
occupy. Some thought it might be a Dog, while others suggested that it was a young lion ; 
but the prevailing idea referred little Quiz to a position among the bears. 
He was a most amusing and clever little animal, readily picking up acquirements, and 
inventing new accomplishments of his own. He would sit at the piano, and sing a song to his 
own accompaniment, the manual, or rather the pedal, part of the performance being achieved 
by a dexterous patting of the keys, and the vocal efforts by a prolonged and modulated howl. 
He could also “talk,” by uttering little yelps in rapid succession. 
Like all pet Dogs, he was jealous of disposition, and could not bear that any one, not 
excepting his mistress, should be more noticed than himself. 
When his mistress was ill, he was much aggrieved at the exclusive attention which was 
given to the invalid, and cast about in his doggish brain for some method of attracting the 
notice which he coveted. It is supposed that he must have watched the interview between 
the medical man and patient, and have settled in his mind the attraction which exercised so 
powerful an influence upon the physician ; for just as the well-known carriage drew up to 
the door, Quiz got on a chair, sat up on his hind legs, and began to put out his tongue, and 
hold forth his paw, as he had seen his mistress do, and evidently expected to be treated in a 
similar manner. His purpose was certainly gained, for he attracted universal attention by 
his ruse. He had not patience to keep his tongue out of his mouth, but rapidly thrust it out, 
and as rapidly withdrew it again. 
Poor Quiz died very shortly after I made acquaintance with him, a victim to the cholera, 
which at that time was rife in Oxford. 
The veky tiniest of the Dog family is the Mexican Lapdog, a creature so very minute 
in its dimensions as to appear almost fabulous to those who have not seen the animal itself. 
One of these little canine pets is to be seen in the British Museum, and always attracts 
much attention from the visitors. Indeed, if it were not in so dignified a locality, it would 
be generally classed with the mermaid, the flying serpent, and the Tartar lamb, as an admir- 
able example of clever workmanship. It is precisely like those white woolen toy Dogs which 
sit upon a pair of bellows, and when pressed give forth a nondescript sound, intended to do 
duty for the legitimate canine bark. To say that it is no larger than these toys would be 
hardly true, for I have seen in the shop windows many a toy Dog which exceeded in size the 
veritable Mexican Lapdog. 
The magxificext animal which is termed the Bloodhotjhd, on account of its peculiar 
facility for tracking a wounded animal through all the mazes of its devious course, is very 
scarce in England, as there is but little need for these Dogs for its chief employment. 
In the “good old times” this animal was largely used by thief -takers, for the purpose of 
tracking and securing the robbers who in those days made the country unsafe, and laid the 
roads under a black mail. Sheep -stealers, who were much more common when the offence 
was visited with capital punishment, were frequently detected by the delicate nose of the 
Blood riouxD, which would, when once laid on the scent, follow it up with unerring precision, 
unravelling the single trail from among a hundred crossing footsteps, and only to be baffled by 
water or blood. Water holds no scent, and if the hunted man is able to take a long leap into 
the water, and to get out again in some similar fashion, he may set at defiance the Blood- 
hound’s nose. If blood be spilt upon the track, the delicate olfactories of the animal are 
blunted, and it is no longer able to follow the comparatively weak scent which is left by the 
retreating footsteps. 
Both these methods have been successfully employed, but in either case great caution is 
needed. When the hound suspects that the quarry has taken to the water, it swims backward 
and forward, testing every inch of the bank on both sides, and applying its nose to every leaf, 
stick, or frothy scum that comes floating by. 
