THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 231 
from their dam ; yet they did not relish flesh when they came 
to England. In the islands of the Pacific Ocean the dogs are 
bred upon vegetables, and would not eat flesh when offered 
. them by our circumnavigators. 
We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, 
upright, fox-like ears; and that hanging ears, which are 
esteemed so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and 
cultivation. Thus in the Zravels of Ysbrandt Ides from Mus- 
covy to China, the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges, 
near the river Oby, are engraved with prick-ears, like those 
from Canton. The Kamschatdales also train the same sort of 
sharp-eared, peak-nosed dogs to draw their sledges; as may 
be seen in an elegant print engraved for Captain Cook’s last 
voyage round the world. 
Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be imperti- 
nent to add that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they 
hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with 
much’ delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones 
when offered as food; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, 
though he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But, 
when we came to offer the bones of partridges to the two 
Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and 
licked the platter clean. 
No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the 
scent and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with 
vehemence and transport ; but then they will not touch their 
bones, but turn from them with abhorrence, even when they 
are hungry. 
Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such 
birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but why 
they reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so 
easily accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, 
that the chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs again will not 
devour the more rancid water-fowls, nor indeed the bones of 
