THE IRISH WOLF-DOG-. " The greyhound ! the great hound ! the graceful of lirnb ! Rough fellow ! tall fellow ! swift fellow, and slim ! Let them sound through the earth, let them sail o'er the sea, They will light on none other more ancient than thee !" OLD MS. DOGS: THEIR ORIGIN AND VARIETIES DIRECTIONS AS TO THEIR GENERAL MANAGEMENT, AND SIMPLE INSTRUCTIONS AS TO THEIR TREATMENT UNDER DISEASE H. D. RICHARDSON, AUTHOR OF " THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE IRISH FOSSIL DEER," " DOMESTIC FOWL," TC ETC WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS ON WOOD. NEW YORK: ORANGE JUDD & COMPACT, AGRICULTURAL BOOK PUBLISHERS, 245 BROADWAY. -* SF A. W. BAKER, ESQ., JUNIOR, OP BALLYTOBIN, CO. KILKENNY. MY DEAR SIR, Permit me to inscribe to you the following pages, with the hope that you will not deem them altogether unworthy of your acceptance. I know that you are, like myself, a warm friend and admirer of the noble animal whose history to illustrate and trust that and habits they are designed ; you it is the will receive, in the spirit in which tendered, this, only tribute in my power to offer, in return for the very kjs-d and valuable assistance you extended to me in the prepara- tion of the work. Believe me, my dear Sir, Your grateful Friend, H. D. RICHARDSON CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. PAO ORIGIN or THB Doo 11 CHAPTER II. EARLY HISTORY OF THE Doo 23 CHAPTER III. VARIETIES OF THE Doo WILD Does. The Dingo of Australia 28 Wild Dog of China . 38 . The Kirarahe of New Zealand . 30 Aguara of South America. S> The Dhole of India 30 Deeh of Egypt 5i Jungle Koola 3J Wild Dog of South America 33 CHAPTER IV. CLASS I. GREYHOUNDS. SUBDIVISION A. ROUGH GREYHOUNDS. Irish Wolf-Dog 36 Persian Greyhound, two sub-varie- Highland Deerhound 51 ties 56 Scottish Greyhound 54 Greek Greyhound il Russian Greyhound 55 Arabian Greyhound 57 V CHAPTER V. GREYHOUNDS. SUBDIVISION B. SMOOTH GREYHOUNDS. Common British Greyhound 57 I Turkish Greyhound 61 Italian 60 of South America 61 Greyhound | Tiger-hound CHAPTER VI. SECOND CLASS GROUP I. Great Danish Dog 62 Cattle Dog of Cuba 69 Spanish Bloodhound 65 Pariah of India....'. 70 African Bloodhound 67 Mexican Taygote 70 French Matin 68 Florida Wolf-Dog 70 Feral Dog of St. Domingo 68 CHAPTER VII. HOUNDS PROPERLY SO CALLED. TheTalbot 71 The Otter-hound 78 The Bloodhound 72 The Spanish Pointer 78 The Staghound 74 The Portuguese Pointer 79 The Oriental Hound 75 The French Pointer 79 The Foxhound 76 The Italian Pointer 79 The Harrier. The English Pointer 80 TheBeaglo 77 i The Dalmatian 81 77 Russian Pointer 8J The Kerry Beagle | The 10 CONTENTS. TERRIERS. PAGE PAG 5 The Russian Terrier 82 South American Terrier 84 The Scottish, two varieties 83 Mexican Prairie Dog 85 The Isle of Syke Terrier 83 Turnspit - 85 English Terrier 84 Harlequin Terrier 85 Maltese Terrier 84 CHAPTER VIII. NEWFOUNDLAND, OR WOLF-DOQ GROUP. Newfoundland Dog....' 87 Iceland Dog s)4 Labrador Dog 89 Greenland Dog 94 Italian or Pyrenean Wolf-Dog 91 Lapland Dog 94 Pomeranian Dog 92 Shepherd's Dog of Scotland, or Colley 94 Hare Indian Dog 92 Shepherd's Dog of England 95 The Mailed Dog 93 Shepherd's Dog of France 96 Esquimaux Dog 93 Drover's Dog 96 Siberian Dog 93 Cur Dog 9C KanitschatkaDog 93 CHAPTER IX. THE SPANIELS. Setter or Land-Spaniel, three varie- I Springer 100 ties 97 Blenheim.--. 100 | Water Spaniel 98 King Charles. 100 Cocker 100 WATER-DOGS. Great Rough Water-Dog ........... 103 Little Barbet ...................... 104 Poodle ............................ 103 LionDog .......................... 10f> CHAPTER X. THIRD GREAT CLASS. MASTIFFS. Dog of Thibet 105 Bulldog 110 Dog of St. Bernard, or Alpine Mastiff 106 Pug-dog Ill Spanish or Cuba Mastiff 109 British Mastiff. Ill CHAPTER XI. MONGRELS. Lurcher 113 Shock Dog 114 Ban Dog 113 Artois Dog ] 14 Dropper 113 Griffin Dog 114 Bull-terrier 113 Kangaroo Dog 114 Alicant Dog 113 CHAPTER XII. " GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE DOG, INCLUDING CROPPING, AND THE REMO- VAL OF DEWCLAWS 114 CHAPTER XIII. DISEASES OF THE DOG. Rabies 121 Distemper 126 Dumb Madness 122 Diarrhoea , 126 Canker in the Ear 122 Costiveness 127 Jaundice 123 How to bleed 127 Worms 123 Warts 127 Mange 125 DOGS: THEIR NATURAL HISTORY, ETC. CHAPTER I. .INTRODUCTION ORIGIN OF THE DOG. " IT is in far remote ages of The Earth and Animated Nature" that we have to seek for traces of the origin of this noble and generous animal, which, while some have placed the lion, and some the horse, as the first of quadrupeds, has enjoyed the especial privilege and well-merited honor of being, par excellence, the FRIEND OF MAN. This has adhered to him in adversity, since the fall, and through all vicissi- tudes. I should be disposed to award to this animal the next successive place to man in the scale of, at all events, moral being. True that, in physical formation, the various tribes of Simiae and Orans would appear to approximate the most to but in intellectual I think closely humanity ; development they will be generally conceded to be inferior to our noble friend, THE DOG. So nearly akin is the intelligence of the dog to reason, that we are sometimes puzzled to account for the actions which result from it. As Pope says, when apostrophizing the elephant " 'Twixt that and reason, what a nice barrier ! Forever separate, yet forever near." Essay on Man. But Pope, among the many poets, has also furnished a very remarkable illustration, from its beauty, its celebrity, and, above all, the wideness of its scope, of these high pre- rogatives of the dog, of their universality, and also of their " repute I allude to that far-famed passage in the Essay on Man" 12 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. " Lo ! the poor Indian, whose untutor'd mind Sees******God in storms, and hears him in the wind, And thinks, admitted to that equal sky, His FAITHFUL DOG shall bear him company." " The many poets" have been alluded to : yes, from the days of Homer, who hymned the fidelity of Argus, the old dog of Ulysses, in the Odyssey, to our own times, when Lord Byron, in his youth, penned the epitaph upon his faith- ful favorite at and the late Thomas Newstead ; Campbell sang, in one of his celebrated ballads, of the old harper by the Shannon and his dog when the simple tale of Colin and " his poor dog Tray" (the old shepherd and the old shep- herd's dog) was adorned with plaintive verse. The poets of various ages and of various lands would seem to have delighted in commemorating the virtues of this favorite animal, perhaps, in part, as though they recognised with poetic force of perception in their devotion to man, something of the primal love with which man once looked up to his heavenly Father and almighty Friend. If I be not mistaken, this impressive comparison forms the subject of one of Lord Bacon's famous "ESSAYS." " Should it be deemed that this prefatory character and " eulogium" of the dog partakes too much of favor and af- fection," is not, perhaps, scientific enough for a treatise of this nature, I still trust that so much may be conceded to a very zealous author in the commencement of his work, and as such eulogistic notices are not, though rarely, indeed, so richly merited, unusual in history,* they may, perhaps, be allowed in natural history also. Though here, from the nature of the subject, these remarks are necessarily placed first, as prefatory, instead of being introduced in the body of the work, yet may I not be excused, as the moral amiable qualities of the dog are so remarkable and notorious, that they form, in themselves a kind of description of the species, a sort of special grade' of chivalry, giving dogs a rank of honor among animals from the chivalrous character of their many virtues virtues so numerous and so generally known and experienced, that were they to receive a full degree of tribute, these remarks would extend to the entire limits of my volume ? I therefore humbly crave indulgence for * See Rolliii, for instance, and many others. NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 18 mus lingering a little upon this pleasing portion of my theme. ^ It would appear that for some, time, I know not why, (un. less it be explained on the same principle that caused the " ostracizing of Aristides, for being called The Just,") there has been a strange infatuation among natural historians foi withholding from the dog his claims to originality of creation, for, in short, an "attainder of his lineage;" nearly all who of late have written upon this subject, having zealously endeavored to trace his descent to the treacherous, cowardly, and rapacious wolf, that skulking, scavenger-like marauder, the or the and fox some even jackal, crafty plotting ; referring for his primitive type to the surly hyaena, with that animal's unsocial and indomitable congeners. Some writers, on the other hand, go so far as to admit, that a true and genuine dog was, indeed, originally created the other tribes of animals but at the same among ; they, time, maintain him to have been formed with a wild, un- and and to owe his social, savage disposition ; present posi- tion as the faithful and valued friend of man, to the reclaim- " ing power of human reason," and to a train of adventitious circumstances long subsequent to the creation of the animal world, and consequently to the era of his primitive existence. These are the persons who love to descant upon, as they are " pleased to call it, the glorious, never-to-be-forgotten con- quest of reason over instinct." Cuvier has said, speaking of the dog and his supposed sub- " jugation, C'est la conquete la plus complete, la plus singu- liere, et la plus utile que 1'homme a faite;" and his translator, or rather commentator, Mr.