better answer than telling us where they were, by the announcement that they had killed. We went up to them, and found a fine young hen bird, very large to their ideas, and my own, but small in comparison to what the eapercailzie in this part of the world sometimes is thirteen pounds being no extraordinary weight for an old cock. She had come out of the wood directly over them, in all probability startled by my voice; two triggers had been pulled-one from the wet had become useless, but the other had proved effectual.

We went into the wood again, and, before long, a second, also a hen, came flying over the chasseur; how disturbed we knew not. We fired, and, hearing him call out that he had hit, I ran up to him, and certain enough he had, for several feathers were flying about. He had also marked her to some distance, where she appeared to fly with difficulty, and therefore he thought to find her again; but after an indefatigable search of about an hour, we were obliged to give it up, and with that ended our day's sport, as the rain once more commenced, and we had nothing to do but to join our companions, and steer homewards. Singular enough on this day we had only seen two birds, and both of them had been shot at, probably both killed: though it is to be noticed that neither of them were fired at by the party who flushed them, and therefore they still maintained the reputation for wildness which they had so well earned on the previous day. As for myself, I considered my lot rather an unfair one: I alone had toiled along with this seven-league-booted chasseur, and that merely to frighten out a bird for one of the idlers to kill; but so that fickle goddess, Fortune, often wills it in affairs of greater consequence, and it was something to take home one bird amongst us.

When we had no longer anything else to attract us, I could not help taking a scrutiny of our conducteur, for he was certainly an odd fellow in his way. He appeared about thirty years of age, and six fet high; his figure rather slight, but perhaps not so much so as it seemed, as, from his line of life, he was not likely to carry any superfluous flesh. His complexion was pale, almost to an unhealthy appearance, but this must, I should think, have been deceptive, for, where there was so much activity, the stamina of the constitution was likely to be sound. His dress was well adapted to his mountain work, being lighter than that usually worn by low-land game-keepers, with the exception of a pair of ankle-boots, which were strong, and rough-nailed,—things most requisite for such walking, and the want of which I had already experienced. His gun, a light German double-barrel, he carried slung over his shoulder, as Germans invariably do when not beating for game.

Such, in appearance, was the man who piloted us in our ex

cursion over these, to him familiar regions; and who, had the two days been fine, would at the least have given those, who followed him, enough of it. As the credit of many a horse, and many a rider, is saved by a check in a fox-chase, these mountain clouds perhaps saved us all from being dead beaten by this mountain chasseur.

And now as to the often discussed question-whether the cock-ofthe-wood might ever again take his place among the feathered race of these islands. It is certainly possible, but attended with so many difficulties, that I should think it not very likely to be carried into effect at all events, it never can to any great extent, because the requisite grounds are not to be found. Never, in any part of Great Britain, did I view forests so extensive, and so solitary, as these; and it is likewise essential that their elevation should be considerable, for in low lands these birds will not abide. They may be driven downwards by great stress of weather, as the wild swan comes to us from her polar How high skies, but such changes are as brief as they are uncertain. we had ascended may be guessed from the simple fact-that we neither found a hare, or a chevereuil, on either day, though they are both plentiful in this part of Germany, and we were on preserved ground. Neither, had we awaited for the first heavy fall of snow, should we have found a single woodcock. Scotland is, therefore, the most likely place, if the attempt is to be made at all.

With regard to food, there would be no difficulty, as we are told, upon good authority, that it consists of "the tender shoots of pines, the seeds of plants, the berries of various species of vaccinium and arbutus, the buds of birch and alder, leaves, and grain." These could still be found in plenty, and therefore it is not because their supplies have been cut off that they have deserted the garrison. "Formerly in Ireland, and still more recently in Scotland," it is added, "this noble bird, the most magnificent of the whole of the grouse tribe, was abundant in the larger woods; but indiscriminate and wanton slaughter, and an unremitting system of harassment, have caused its extirpation." It would, perhaps, have been more to the purpose to have said that it disappeared before an increasing population-and fled from the sound of the woodman's axe in its solitary abodes. We are informed by Selby, that "the last individual of this species in Scotland was killed, about fifty years ago, near Inverness." It is likely to continue the last.

DOGS:

THEIR ORIGIN, VARIETY, AND USES.

BY H. D. RICHARDSON.

(Continued from Page 115.)

THE second theory to which I referred at the commencement of this treatise, holds that the dog, wolf, fox, and jackal, will not intermingle, and that if even they did intermingle, the offspring thus produced, would be sterile, and incapable of continuing their kind; and they, assum. ing this circumstance as established, conclude that the dog is of a different species with these animals, and consequently of original creation; then again, agreeing with their opponents that but one variety of each species is of original creation, they assert that the Almighty at the beginning, formed but one representative of the domestic dog (by some asserted to have been the shepherd's dog), which they suppose to have been created expressly for the use of man, but others, the wild dog, an animal which closely resembles the former, and which they say man subsequently reduced under hls dominion by means of his reason triumphing over the instinct of nature.

The point we have first to determine is, whether all those animals which breed together and produce fertile young are to be set down as belonging to the one species, and whether but one variety of each species was originally formed. To the former of these questions I reply in the affirmative, but the latter position I most strenuously deny, and while I grant the former position, I still assert that it holds good only as a general rule, and that exceptions to it will occasionally occurwhich exceptions, are, however, to be regarded as monsters,-lusus nature,-things which may occur once in a century, or perhaps may once or twice occur and never occur again.

I assert that the wolf will engender with the dog, and that the young thus produced will sometimes, at all events, be capable of continuing its kind. I say the same of the fox and jackal, still, however, I am by no means disposed to admit that a sufficient number of experiments have been made to prove that the offspring, even usually, are fertile they may have proved so in a few instances, but may perhaps never be so again. The mule, the offspring of horse and ass, is occasionally fertile (in Malta for instance). I once saw a mule bird, between goldfinch and canary, and was shown eggs, which the owner assured me were laid by it, and these eggs proved productive; this was, I acknowledge, a most extraordinary case, as when these hybrids proved fertile, I usually found it was the male and not the female who did so.

I shall presently lay before my readers an account of my experience, as far as the intermingling of the dog with the wolf, fox, and jackal is concerned; but will first say a few words as to whether, granting the dog to be of original creation, but one variety only was formed, and if so, whether that variety was the shepherd's dog, from whom have sprung all the rest.

This is a very favourite doctrine at present, it is indeed almost universally received amongst naturalists, and is one which it would be very difficult for me to endeavour to overturn-argument against it I have none, for the subject admits of none on either one side or the other, but I think that I have at all events probability to oppose to it.

This was the favourite theory of the more eloquent than accurate Buffon; and is also that of the more accurate but less eloquent Cuvier. It is certainly in some respects very plausible, and is a very convenient mode of accounting for, or giving a history of all the various kinds of dogs known throughout the world, which I dare say is one reason of its being so very generally adopted.

It is rather odd that these naturalists have not agreed as to the individual dog whence the race has sprung. One referring it to the shepherd's dog, another to the French matin, and some again, to the wild dogs, and this very discrepancy proves on how very fragile a foundation they have reared the superstructure of their theory.

Buffon declares that those dogs which have been abandoned in the wilds of America, and have existed in a savage state for between one hundred and fifty and two hundred years, though owing their origin to different races, being all the progeny of dogs, originally domestic, must, during so long a period of time, have approached, more or less, to their primitive; and yet travellers assure us that they rather resemble greyhounds, having long flat heads, a narrow lengthened muzzle, a wild, fierce air, slight spare body, and are extremely swift of foot. Buffon, however, says that he suspects them to bear a closer resemblance to the matin, which he says does not widely differ either from the shepherd's dog or the true greyhound-and that the old travellers declare the wild dogs of Canada to have erect ears like foxes, and to resemble moderate sized matins. How Buffon might have proved the matin to be so like the greyhound and the sheep dog I do not pretend to explain, unless indeed that boasted dog is but (as I strongly suspect) a mongrel bred, between those two animals, somewhat like our lurcher.

We certainly perceive in the wild dog of Australia-in the wild dog of North America-and in the " buck-dog," or "Indian" dog of South America, a surprisingly close resemblance to the shepherd's dog of Scotland. The shepherd's dogs of different countries, however, differ widely from each other. There is very little resemblance between

the Scotch colly-the tail-less, and sheepish-looking cur, called shepherd's dog in England ;-the "chien de Berger" of France-the noble looking and powerful shepherd's dog of the Pyrenees-and many other varieties to be met with throughout the continent of Europe.

Let us, however, select any one of these-the colley is usually the dog referred to, and are we then to believe that from a pair of diminitive curs sprang the entire canine race! That GOD, in forming an animal which he knew in his wisdom would afterwards prove so valuable and so necessary to man, should have created with that view so feeble, so cowardly, and so slow a dog, appears strange and improbable. Granting, however, that the Almighty might have acted thus, for some good reason of his, too deep for human intellect to fathom, whence have arisen the numerous and extraordinary changes that must have taken place, ere we could possess so many different varieties?

Did the stately and terrific boar-dog-the slim, smooth, and beautiful greyhound-and the diminutive and timid Blenheim spaniel, with the bullet-headed, unconquerable bull dog, and the short-legged hardy terrier, all spring from a pair of uncouth and shaggy collies? Buffon assures us that they did, and he goes on to inform us that the shepherd's dog, transported into a more temperate, and among a more civilized people, as England, Germany, or France, will lose his wild look, his half erect ears, his long and shaggy coat, and will become the bulldog, the matin, or the hound; the bull-dog and matin retaining the erect ears, and in their habits and sanguinary disposition still closely resembling the stock from which they sprung. The hound presents the greatest difference, in the remarkable length and dependance of his ears, and the mildness and docility of his nature. The hound, transported into Barbary and Spain, where the hair of most quadrupeds becomes soft and long, will become the water spaniel or the land spaniel.

The matin again, when brought into more northern climates, becomes the great dane-when transported to the South, becomes the greyhound, &c., &c.

The great Dane transported into Ireland, the Ukraine, Tartary, Epirus, and Albania, becomes the Irish wolf dog, which is the largest of all dogs. Now, as the translator of Cuvier, (Mr. Griffith) justly observes, if these premises be correct, then are these varieties not of original creation, but the result of the effects of climate, treatment, and breeding. All I can say, however, is, that these changes, if they ever took place at all, must have done so an extremely long time ago, for Solomon mentions the greyhound as a distinct and well-known variety, and in the passage of Exodus I have already alluded to, where mention is made of dogs opening their mouths, or barking at the Israelites, I think some other variety must have been intended, the greyhound

NO. XV.-VOL. III.-NEW SERIES.

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