DOGS. 
373 
“And so ends our course upon dogs,” ob¬ 
served Richard, as Miss Winston concluded. 
“After all, aunt, taking out the domestic 
dogs, I do not see that the canines are any 
better than the felines.” 
“You must admit that to he a large 
4 take out,’ ” replied Miss Winston, smiling. 
44 But omitting, as }mu say, the domestic 
dogs, I do not.think the wild canine races 
compare in beauty or sagacity with the 
feline. Their fur is generally coarse and 
harsh, their figures in most cases far from 
beautiful; and their habit of devouring car¬ 
rion, and the horrible odour which belongs 
to most of them, conspire to render them 
particularly repulsive. Yor do they appear 
to have the advantage of the cats in dispo¬ 
sition and temper. The great Felidae sel¬ 
dom kill more than they wish to eat at 
once; and as they are for the most part very 
cleanly in their manner of feeding, and, 
unless forced by hunger, do not usually 
devour putrid substances, they have no 
object in a wholesale destruction ; while the 
wolf, the wild dog, and the hyena seem 
alike to rejoice in slaughter for its own sake, 
and, if they fall upon a flock of sheep or 
32 
