CARNIVORA. 
S19 
mestic purposes. It is frequently known to protect 
its master’s house and property by menaces only, 
even when a stranger is completely within its power ; 
and will not be excited to violence, unless an im- 
prudent perseverance should render it necessary for 
the protection of its charge : and, in such cases even, 
it has been known to pull a man down, and stand 
over without hurting him a considerable time, till 
its master appeared. 
This breed was assiduously fostered by the Ro- 
mans, while they had possession of this island ; and 
many of them were exported to Rome, to combat 
other animals in the amphitheatre. 
There is a degree of generosity about this animal, 
which commonly attends true courage ; and, as if 
conscious of its superiority, the mastiff has been 
known to chastise with great dignity the imperti- 
nence of an inferior. An instance is recorded of 
one, which, being frequently molested by a mongrel, 
and teased by its continual barking, at last*took it 
up in its mouth by the back, and, with great com- 
posure, dropped it over the quay into the river, 
without doing it any further injury. 
Buffon’s work, with Daubenton’s additions, con- 
tains figures of the German dog, or mopse ; the 
Iceland dog (c. d^ Islande) ; the little Danish dog, 
which is said to be improperly named, as there is no 
similarity of make or size between this and the great 
Danish dog ; the bastard pug ; the Artois dog, 
which is supposed now to be extinct; the naked, 
Q ^ 
