76 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
running dogs. The true instinct of the setter is revealed in its 
dreams. I have long owned a spaniel bitch, perfectly trained and 
perfectly mute, that had never barked but once in her life. Hard- 
ly however was she asleep, before her imagination carried her off 
in furious courses after fantastic game. Then the precepts of Man 
must be forgotten, and those of Nature only remembered, and she 
opened in full voice. 
The true hunting dog being the running dog, the true hunt is 
the running chase. 
There is but one excuse to legitimate the employment of the 
shot-gun with running dogs : that is misery ; but this excuse is 
worth a hundred. Every one is not a king, grand duke, or Jew- 
ish banker, to have the means of keeping up a pack. But be- 
cause we are not kings, grand dukes, or bankers, is no reason for 
renouncing the pleasures of the hunt, and it would not be worth 
while to make revolutions, if revolutions did not restore to the citi- 
zens the right of hunting. The chase with running dogs is then 
only the perfection of the natural hunt practiced by the wild dog 
and the wolf abandoned to their instincts ^ ^ ^ ^ The dog 
is however of a nature eminently malleable, docile, and accommo- 
dating himself to every thing. It must be thus for man to live in 
all climates, and by all kinds of industry. The running dog hunts 
every thing, from the hare to the lion, and even man himself. He 
will play a game of dominoes on occasion to keep his master com- 
pany. All the animals of this race, the wolf, the fox, the jackal, 
are strong in calculating time ; they know such or such an hour of 
the day as invariably as one of Breguet’s chronometers, especially 
that of meals ; but I believe that the dog alone knows the polit- 
ical division of the days of the week. 
Where village butchers are in the habit of killing on Saturday, 
it is not rare to meet with isolated dogs upon the road, repairing 
from farms or villages to the site of the weekly butcheries. 
You may read a grave preoccupation in their deportment, and 
it is in vain for a loafing comrade or a person of their acquaint- 
ance to try to stop them with any frivolous conversation. An im- 
portant affair awaits them where they are going, and they have no 
time to squander on their way. On their return they are not so 
