NATURAL HISTORY OF THE BLOOD-HOUND. 
15 
are much less injurious to game than is generally supposed, since they destroy 
infinitely more of vermin than they do of game, and therefore their trifling attacks 
on the latter are conceived to he far more than counterbalanced by their extensive 
destruction of the former. Mr. Waterton, moreover, never permits a gun to be 
fired within his park walls; and yet game is remarkably plentiful in his delight¬ 
ful territory. Mr. W. says the a game-keeper” is the real game-destroyer ; as in 
searching for the nests of Pheasants and Partridges, a track is made to each of 
these, by following which, Weasels, Polecats, and other vermin, find an easy prey. 
The Pheasant always rises on wing from her nest, and drops down upon it in 
returning. 
Here, however, I must again grant a truce for a while to your readers and to 
myself, for time and space both fail me. 
Canterbury , June 1, 1839. ^ 
NATURAL HISTORY OP THE BLOOD-HOUND AND ITS 
VARIETIES.* 
Part I.—African and Spanish Varieties. 
By A Lover of Nature. 
The natural history of several individuals of the Dog-tribe appears to be 
enveloped in considerable obscurity; such species, more especially, as have become 
altogether or nearly extinct, and such as, having been permitted to engender with 
inferior kinds, have now ceased to exist in their original purity, except perhaps a 
few solitary specimens rarely to be met with ; and to these I may also add those 
sorts which, not being natives of this country, but transplanted hither from 
abroad, are liable to be misnamed, misrepresented, and inaccurately described. 
How erroneous, for instance, are the opinions current respecting the ce old Irish 
Wolf-Dog” {Canisgraius Hibernicus)^ the great Danish Dog, the blood-hound 
and its varieties, the Boar-Dog of Germany, the mastiff of Thibet and Tartary, 
the Spanish Wolf-Dog, the Dog of Mount St. Bernard, the “ Dogue ’’ and c< Dogue 
de-forte-race” of Buffon, and even our own mastiff, now seldom to be seen 
thorough-bred. 
It is now some years since I commenced investigations respecting some of the 
above-mentioned animals; and I certainly found the task infinitely more laborious 
than I had at all anticipated. Many a weary journey has it cost me, many a 
From the Dublin Medical Press. 
