straight line, almost with the velocity of a bullet. The hunters watched attentively the course they took, and then set off in the same direction, stumbling along over twisted roots and fallen trees, with their eyes turned up to the sky. In this way they traced the honey-laden bees to their hive, in the hollow trunk of a blasted oak, where, after buzzing about for a moment, they entered a hole about sixty feet from the ground. Two of the bee-hunters now plied their axes vigorously at the foot of the tree, to level it with the ground. The mere spectators and amateurs, in the meantime, drew off to a cautious distance, to be out of the way of the falling of the tree and the vengeance of its inmates. The jarring blows of the axe seemed to have no effect in alarming or agitating this most industrious community. They continued to ply at their usual occupations-some arriving full-freighted into port, others sallying forth on new expeditions, like so many merchantmen in a money-making metropolis, little suspicious of impending bankruptcy and downfall: even a loud crack, which announced the disrupture of the trunk, failed to divert their attention from the intense pursuit of gain: at length down came the tree with a tremendous crash, bursting open from end to end, and displaying all the hoarded treasures of the commonwealth. One of the hunters immediately ran up with a wisp of lighted hay, as a defence against the bees. The latter, however, made no attack, and sought no revenge: they seemed stupified by the catastrophe, and, unsuspicious of its cause, remained crawling and buzzing about the ruins, without offering us any molestation. Every one of the party now fell to, with spoon and hunting-knife, to scoop out the flakes of honeycomb with which the hollow trunk was stored. Some of them were of old date, and a deep brown colour; others were beautifully white, and the honey in their cells was almost limpid. Such of the combs as were entire were placed in camp-kettles, to be conveyed to the encampment; those which had been shivered in the fall were devoured upon the spot. Every stark bee-hunter was to be seen with a rich morsel in his hand, dripping about his fingers, and disappearing as rapidly as a cream tart before the holiday appetite of a schoolboy. Nor was it the bee-hunters alone that profited by the downfall of this industrious community. As if the bees would carry through the similitude of their habits with those of laborious and gainful man, I beheld numbers from - rival hives, arriving on eager wing, to enrich themselves with the ruins of their neighbours. These busied themselves as eagerly and cheerily as so many wreckers on an Indiaman that has been driven on shore-plunging into the cells of the broken honeycombs, banqueting greedily on the spoil, and then winging their way full-freighted to their homes. As to the poor proprietors of the ruin, they seemed to have no heart to do any thing, not even to taste the nectar that flowed around them, but crawled backwards and forwards, in vacant desolation, as I have seen a poor fellow, with his hands in his pockets, whistling vacantly and despondingly about the ruins of his house that had been burned. It is difficult to describe the bewilderment and confusion of the bees of the bankrupt hive who had been absent at the time of the catastrophe, and who arrived, from time to time, with full cargoes from abroad. At first they wheeled about in the air, in the place where the fallen tree had once reared its head, astonished at finding all a vacuum. At length, as if comprehending their disaster, they settled down in clusters on a dry branch of a neighbouring tree, from whence they seemed to contemplate the prostrate ruin, and to buzz forth doleful lamentations over the downfall of their republic. It was a scene on which the melancholy Jacques' might have moralised by the hour." In various parts of Africa, hunting for the nests of wild bees is similarly pursued by the natives of that extensive continent. In Alexander's " Expedition into the Interior of Africa," we find the following notice of a hunt of this kind :-" One of the Hottentots observed a number of bees entering a hole in the ground, which had formerly belonged to some animal of the weasel kind. As he made signs for us to come to him, we turned that way, fearing he had met with some accident; and when the people began to unearth the bees, I did not expect that we should escape without being severely stung. But they knew so well how to manage an affair of this kind, that they robbed the poor insects with the greatest ease and safety. Before they commenced digging, a fire was made near the hole, and constantly supplied with damp fuel to produce a cloud of smoke. In this the workmen were completely enveloped; so that the bees returning from the fields were prevented from approaching, and those which flew out of the nest were driven by it to a distance. Yet the rest of our party, to avoid their resentment, found it prudent either to ride off, or stand also in the smoke. About three pounds of honey were obtained, which, excepting a small share which I reserved till tea-time, they instantly devoured in the comb; and some of the Hottentots professed to be equally fond of the larvæ. The honey appeared unusually liquid, and nearly as thin as water, yet it seemed as sweet, and of as delicate a taste, as the best honey of England. Whilst I was engaged in the chase one day on foot with a Namaqua attendant, he picked up a small stone, looked at it earnestly, then over the plain, and threw it down again. I asked what it was; he said there was the mark of a bee on it; taking it up, I also saw on it a small pointed drop of wax [properly excrement], which had fallen from a bee in its flight. The Namaqua noticed the direction the point of the drop indicated, and walking on, he picked up another stone, also with a drop of wax on it, and so on at considerable intervals, till, getting behind a crag, he looked up, and bees were seen flying across the sky, and in and out of a cleft in the face of the rock. Here, of course, was the honey he was in pursuit of. A dry bush is selected, fire is made, the cliff is ascended, and the nest is robbed in the smoke." Park, in his Travels, mentions, that the African wildbees are often a formidable enemy to the caravans of travellers crossing the desert. The following incident, as he relates, took place near Doofroo :-" We had no sooner unloaded the asses, than some of the people, being in search of honey, unfortunately disturbed a large swarm of bees. They came out in immense numbers, and attacked men and beasts at the same time. Luckily most of the asses were loose, and galloped up the valley; but the horses and people were very much stung, and obliged to scamper off in all directions. In fact, for half an hour, the bees seemed completely to have put an end to our journey. In the evening, when they became less troublesome, and we could venture to collect our cattle, we found many of them much stung and swelled about the head. Three asses were missing; one died in the evening, and one next morning. Our guide lost his horse, and many of the people were much stung about the hands and face." Honey-bees exist in great numbers in Australia. In the account of an expedition in that country by Major Mitchell, that gentleman observes-"We were now in a land flowing with milk and honey; for the natives, with their new tomahawks, extracted it in abundance from the hollow branches of the trees; and it seemed that, in the season, they could find it almost every where. To such inexpert clowns, as they probably thought us, the honey and the bees were inaccessible, and indeed invisible, save only when the natives cut it out and brought it to us in little sheets of bark, thus displaying a degree of ingenuity and skill in supplying their wante which we, with all our science, could not hope to attain. They would catch one of the bees, and attach to it, with some rosin or gum, the light down of the swan or owl thus laden, the bee would make for the branch of some lofty tree, and so betray its home of sweets to its keen-eyed pursuers, whose bee-chase presented indeed a laughable scene." Printed and Published by W. and R. CHAMBERS, Edinburgh Sold also by W. S. Orr and Co., London. CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE CONDUCTED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, EDITORS OF CHAMBERS'S NUMBER 82. NEW AND IMPROVED SERIES. PRICE 14d. THE DOG.-FIELD SPORTS. THE dog is an animal which seems to have been destined by the Creator to be the friend and assistant of man. Throughout the dangers and difficulties which beset the human being, particularly in an inartificial state of society, the dog has ever proved himself the kindly defender of his life and property, as well as a powerful and essential auxiliary in subduing other animals to his purpose. Without the assistance of the dog, man would not even yet have obtained a beneficial dominion over the various races of wild animals of the earth, or been able to watch with sufficient care those creatures formed for his food. According to naturalists, the dog belongs to the family of the Canide (from canis, Latin for dog, hence canine species), in the order Carnivora, class Mammalia. In the same family are united the wolf, fox, and jackal, and these so nearly approach the dog in physical construction, and certain habits and qualities, that some authorities are inclined to consider them of the same species. The resemblance in some respects, and great dissimilarity in others, between dogs, wolves, foxes, and jackals, is, however, not more remarkable than the general similarity of dogs to each other, as far as an apparent unity of species is concerned; while, at the same time, there is a striking difference of form and character between opposite breeds. One dog is large, another small; one is smooth in the skin, another rough; one has a long head, in another the head is short; one has an exquisite sense of smell, another has comparatively little of that power; and so on. We have an animal which watches our flocks; another which tracks and hunts down noxious wild beasts; another which destroys and digs out vermin from the earth; another which guards our houses and lives while we are asleep; another which seeks out for game in our field-sports; another which will plunge into the deepest waters, and save us from being drowned; besides many other varieties, all less or more distinct in character. The difference is so very remarkable, that the varieties would be entitled to be classed as of different species of animals, unless for the fact that they all breed together, and perpetuate mixed or mongrel varieties. This circumstance led Buffon and other naturalists to infer that all dogs whatsoever are but of one species; the physiological theory being, that no two different species can produce fertile descendants. Buffon further concluded, from a course of observations, that all are sprung from one common root, the shepherd's dog; and that climate, food, and peculiar training, have been the causes of the departure from the primeval stock. The line of argument adopted in support of this theory is, that in the animal, as in the vegetable kingdom (see article FRUIT-GARDEN), improved or very remarkable varieties can be produced by selecting kinds, and breeding from them alone; as, for example, taking the two largest dogs of a breed, and breeding from them; then taking the two largest which this pair produces, and breeding from them also; and so on, till a large variety of dogs is ultimately formed. And further, that if each generation be trained in a particular way, the variety will come to possess properties agreeable to the kind of cultivation bestowed upon it. Such, there is reason to believe, is the true explanation of the extraordinary differences of size and character in the canine species. We must view these dissimilarities as a result of a course of treatment from the earliest period of civilisation till modern times. The ancient Egyptians, and after them the Greeks, are recorded to have paid considerable attention to the training of dogs, and, as is well known, this formed a favourite study in connexion with the field-sports of later ages. Doubts may very naturally be entertained respecting the power of transmitting acquired qualities from one generation to another, of any species of animals; but investigations into the subject afford some remarkable proofs of what can be accomplished by means of careful training or teaching. EFFECTS OF TRAINING. In the latter part of the last century, one Bisset, a native of Perth, by trade a shoemaker, having applied himself with great perseverance to the teaching of animals, succeeded in making a set of cats play in harmony on the dulcimer, uniting their voices to the tones of the instrument; and this singular orchestra was exhibited, to the perfect satisfaction of the public, for a succession of nights, in the Haymarket theatre. He it was who trained that "learned pig," of which our fathers used to speak so highly, the animal having been exhibited in every part of the empire. At a somewhat earlier period, a Saxon peasant boy trained a dog to pened, that when left behind, she would come of her own accord and join the pointers. "She has often stood a jack snipe when all the pointers had passed it: she would back the dogs when they pointed, but the dogs refused to back her until spoke to-Toomer's dogs being all trained to make a general halt when the word was the pronunciation of words. The boy had observed in the dog's voice an indistinct resemblance to certain sounds of the human voice, and was thus prompted to endeavour to teach him to speak. The animal was three years old at the beginning of his instructions-a circumstance which must have been unfavourable to the object; yet, by dint of great labour and persever-given, whether any dog pointed or not, so that she has ance, in three years the boy had taught it to articulate thirty words. It used to astonish its visiters by calling for tea, coffee, chocolate, &c. ; but it is proper to remark, that it required the words to be pronounced by its master beforehand, and it never appeared to become quite reconciled to the exhibitions which it was forced to make. The learned Leibnitz reported on this won-known to gallop, except when called to go out shooting: derful animal to the French Academy, attesting that he had seen the dog and heard it speak; so that there does not appear the slightest ground for doubting the fact, such as it was. All doubt on the question of possibility may, indeed, be considered as set at rest by the recent exhibition of the educated dogs in London-animals which could play at dominoes and chess, and even indicate when their adversaries made false moves. These creatures were visited and played with by thousands, and we never have heard that a deception of any kind as to the reality of their acquired powers was detected. Laying aside such extraordinary examples as these, the ordinary training conferred on horses, dogs, and other domesticated animals, seems to be sufficient to establish the general fact of animal educability. We have no more forcible illustrations of the principle than in the uses which are now made of certain of the canine tribe in rural sports. The pointer, setter, springing spaniel, and all that class of dogs, are understood to be descended from one stock, the Spanish spaniel, with a slight crossing from the fox-hound, for the sake of improving the speed. The original animal may be considered as a record of the original powers, to which every thing else must be regarded as an addition made by human training. Now, the original animal is only gifted by nature with a fine scent for game, and a disposition to make a momentary pause on seeing it, for the purpose of springing upon it. Man has converted this inclination to a temporary pause into a habit of making a full stop, and the animal, instead of gratifying his destructive tendency by flying upon the game, has been trained to be contented with witnessing a vicarious execution by the gun of his master. It is a mistake to suppose that only the spaniel tribe is capable of serving sportsmen in the capacity of pointers and setters. There are other classes of dogs which perseverance would enable, to a certain extent, to act in the same way. Gervase Markham, who wrote on sports in the sixteenth century, speaks of having seen dogs of the bastard tumbler kind adapted to act as setters, though not so well as those of the spaniel kind. Mr Blaine is of opinion that this power can be cultivated in most dogs. It has even been elicited in another and very different class of animals-the hog. Some years ago, Mr Toomer, gamekeeper to Sir Henry Mildmay, bethought him of teaching a pig to act as a pointer, having been struck by the scenting powers of the animal in its search for palatable roots under ground. He began by allowing a young female pig to accompany his pointers, in their breaking lessons, to the field. Within a fortnight, to his own surprise, she was able to hunt and point partridges and rabbits. There being an abundance of these creatures near the keeper's lodge, her education advanced rapidly by frequent exercise, and in a few weeks she was able to retrieve game as well as the best pointer. Slut, as this extraordinary animal was called, was considered to have a more acute scent than any pointer in the charge of the keeper; and it was a kennel of the highest character. They hunted her principally on moors and heaths; and it often hapThoughts and Recollections, by one of the Last Century. London: Murray. 1825. ↑ Encyclopa dia of Rural Sports, 792. been frequently standing in the midst of a field of pointers. In consequence of the dogs being not much inclined to hunt when she was with. them (for they dropped their sterns, and showed symptoms of jealousy), she did not very often accompany them, except for the novelty. Her pace was mostly a trot; she was seldom she would then come home off the forest at full stretch, and be as much elated as a dog at being shown the gun. She always expressed great pleasure when game, either dead or living, was placed before her. She has fre quently stood a single partridge at forty yards' distance, her nose in a direct line to the bird; after standing some considerable time, she would drop like a setter, still keeping her nose in an exact line, and would con tinue in that position until the game moved: if it tak wing, she would come up to the place, and draw slowly after it; and when the bird dropped, she would stand it as before." * These facts, together with what common observation presents to us in domesticated parrots, blackbirds, ravens, magpies, monkeys, &c., place the educability of animals upon a basis, in our opinion, not to be shaker, But the most wonderful thing, and the most convincing part of the proof, remains, in the fact of the transmis sion of acquired qualities by animals to progeny. The habit which education has conferred upon the pointer appears in his puppy, who may be seen earnestly standing at swallows and pigeons in a farm-yard, before be has ever once seen such a thing done by his seniors, received the least instruction. Here only the objects amiss; the act itself is perfect. As may be read supposed, the puppy of a race of English pointers c be trained to the whole business of the field in on tenth of the time which the most experienced breaker would require to effect any improvement upon the simple instinct of the pause in an original Spanish ja niel. On the subject of the hereditary transmission acquired qualities by animals, we have some curi s information from the venerable naturalist, Mr T. A. Knight. 4 In a communication to the Royal Society in 1807, Mr Knight cited several instances of domesticated antA inheriting the acquired habits of their parents. *la all animals," he says, “this is observable; but in the dog it exists to a wonderful extent; and the offspr appears to inherit not only the passions and prope sities, but even the resentments, of the family tr which it springs. I ascertained that a terrier, whe parents had been in the habit of fighting with polecal will instantly show every mark of anger when he first perceives the scent of that animal, though the an itself be wholly concealed from his sight. A ywat spaniel brought up with the terriers showed no ma of emotion at the scent of the polecat, but it pursued a woodcock, the first time it saw one, with clamour a exultation: and a young pointer, which I am certa had never seen a partridge, stood trembling wil anxiety, its eyes fixed and its muscles rigid, when ducted into the midst of a covey of those birds each of these dogs are mere varieties of the sai↑ species, and to that species none of these habits an given by nature. The peculiarities of character ca therefore be traced to no other source than the a quired habits of the parents, which are inherited the offspring, and become what I call instinctive kara ditary propensities." It appears from another communication made by M Knight to the same society in 1837, that he had thes been pursuing investigations on this subject for nesiv sixty years. He proceeds in that conimunication i * Daniel's Rural Sports give a general account of his investigations :-" At the To conclude these preliminary observations on dogs. period," he says, "at which my experiments commenced, A gentleman of our acquaintance, and of scientific acwell-bred and well-taught springing spaniels were abun- quirements, obtained some years ago a pup which had dant, and I readily obtained possession of as many as been produced in London by a female of the celebrated I wanted. I had at first no other object than that of St Bernard's breed. The young animal was brought obtaining dogs of great excellence; but within a very to Scotland, where it was never observed to give any short time, some facts came under my observation which particular tokens of a power of tracking footsteps until very strongly arrested my attention. In several in- winter, when the ground became covered with snow. stances, young and wholly inexperienced dogs appeared It then showed the most active inclination to follow very nearly as expert in finding woodcocks as their ex- footsteps; and so great was its power of doing so under perienced parents. The woods in which I was accus- these circumstances, that when its master had crossed tomed to shoot did not contain pheasants, nor much a field in the most curvilinear way, and caused other game of any other kind, and I therefore resolved never persons to cross his path in all directions, it nevertheto shoot at any thing except woodcocks, conceiving that less followed his course with the greatest precision. by so doing the hereditary propensities above mentioned Here was a perfect revival of the habit of its Alpine would become more obvious and decided in the young fathers, with a degree of specialty as to external conand untaught animals; and I had the satisfaction, inditions, at which, it seems to us, we cannot sufficiently more than one instance, to see some of these find as many woodcocks, and give tongue as correctly, as the best of my older dogs. wonder. We thus see that not only does what metaphysicians call the law of habit exercise a sway in the intellects of Woodcocks are driven in frosty weather, as is well animals, but that modification which takes place in known, to seek their food in springs and rills of unfrozen human communities, and passes under the comprehenwater, and I found that my old dogs knew about as well sive name of civilisation, also affects the lower tribes of as I did the degree of frost which would drive the wood-creation. A race of animals, like a race of men, is civicocks to such places; and this knowledge proved very lisable; and we cannot doubt that the same softening troublesome to me, for I could not sufficiently restrain influences which have produced the advanced nations them. I therefore left the old experienced dogs at of Europe, have operated upon the animals existing in home, and took only the wholly inexperienced young the same countries, and made them very different from dogs; but, to my astonishment, some of these, in seve- what they were in early times. It cannot escape reral instances, confined themselves as closely to the un- mark, that the whole principle of civilisation acquires frozen grounds as their parents would have done. When strength from having its basis thus widened. We beI first observed this, I suspected that woodcocks might come the more confident in the improvability of our have been upon the unfrozen ground during the pre-own species, when we find that even the lower animals ceding night; but I could not discover (as I think I are capable of being improved, through a succession of should have done had this been the case) any traces of generations, by the constant presence of a meliorating their having been there; and as I could not do so, agency. I was led to conclude that the young dogs were guided by feelings and propensities similar to those of their parents. The subjects of my observation in these cases were all the offspring of well-instructed parents, of five or six years old or more; and I thought it not improbable that instinctive hereditary propensities might be stronger in these than in the offspring of very young and inexperienced parents. Experience proved this opinion to be well founded, and led me to believe that these propensities might be made to cease to exist, and others to be given; and that the same breed of dogs which displayed so strongly an hereditary disposition to hunt after woodcocks, might be made ultimately to display a similar propensity to hunt after trufles; and it may, I think, be reasonably doubted whether any dog, having the habits and propensities of the springing spaniel, would ever have been known, if the art of shooting birds on the wing had not been acquired. GENERAL CHARACTER OF DOGS. The dog has six incisory or cutting teeth in both jaws; beyond which there are, on each side, both above and below, a canine tooth; and still farther into the mouth are six cheek-teeth, or molars, in each side of the upper jaw. The three first are sharp and cutting, which Cuvier calls false molars. The next tooth on each side is a carnivorous tooth, furnished with two cutting lobes, beyond which the other two teeth on each side are flat. There are seven cheek teeth, on both sides, in the under jaw; four of these are false molars, a carnivorous tooth, with the posterior part flat, and behind it two tuberculous teeth. The muzzle is elongated, subject to great variety of length in different varieties. The tongue is smooth and soft; the ears erect in the wild varieties, and in some of the tame ones, but, in the latter kinds, for the most part pendulous. The fore-feet are provided with five toes, and the hind-feet with four toes, furnished with rather longish nails, obtuse at their points, and not retractile. The females are provided with both inguinal and ventral teats. The pupils of the eyes are circular. I possessed one young spaniel, of which the male parent, apparently a well-bred springing spaniel, had been taught to do a great number of extraordinary tricks, and of which the female parent was a well-bred springing spaniel; the puppy had been taught, before it came into my possession, a part of the accomplishments of its male parent. In one instance I had walked out with my gun and a servant, without any dog; and having seen a woodcock, I sent for the dog above mentioned, which the servant brought to me. A month afterwards, I sent my servant for it again, under similar circumstances, when it acted as if it had inferred that the track by which the servant had come from me would lead it to me. It left my servant within twenty yards of my house, and was with me in a very few minutes, though the distance which it had to run exceeded a mile. I repeated this experiment at different The average age to which dogs live is about fourteen times, and after considerable intervals, and uniformly years; they frequently, however, live to sixteen, and with the same results, the dog always coming to me even have been known to attain the age of twenty years. without the servant. I could mention several other In their latter days, dogs frequently suffer greatly from instances, nearly as singular, of the sagacity of this decay, and various diseases. They are extremely subanimal, which I imagined to have derived its extraor-ject to rheumatism, from their liability to exposure to dinary powers in some degree from the highly culti- rain, and damp beds. vated intellect of its male parent." The female goes with young sixty-three days, and generally produces from three to five at a birth, and sometimes even twelve, which are at first blind, in which state they continue for from nine days to a fortnight. About the end of two months, their faculties begin to develop themselves. They shed their first teeth at the end of six months, which are replaced by others that do not exfoliate. At twenty months, or two years, dogs arrive at their full vigour. The males continue to propagate for nearly their whole lives, while the female discontinues having young ones at about the age of eight or nine years. Until dogs have attained seven or eight years, their the pronunciation of words. The boy had observed in | the dog's voice an indistinct resemblance to certain sounds of the human voice, and was thus prompted to endeavour to teach him to speak. The animal was three years old at the beginning of his instructions-a circumstance which must have been unfavourable to the object; yet, by dint of great labour and perseverance, in three years the boy had taught it to articulate thirty words. It used to astonish its visiters by calling for tea, coffee, chocolate, &c.; but it is proper to remark, that it required the words to be pronounced by its master beforehand, and it never appeared to become quite reconciled to the exhibitions which it was forced to make. The learned Leibnitz reported on this wonderful animal to the French Academy, attesting that he had seen the dog and heard it speak; so that there does not appear the slightest ground for doubting the fact, such as it was. All doubt on the question of possibility may, indeed, be considered as set at rest by the recent exhibition of the educated dogs in London-animals which could play at dominoes and chess, and even indicate when their adversaries made false moves. These creatures were visited and played with by thousands, and we never have heard that a deception of any kind as to the reality of their acquired powers was detected. Laying aside such extraordinary examples as these, the ordinary training conferred on horses, dogs, and other domesticated animals, seems to be sufficient to establish the general fact of animal educability. We have no more forcible illustrations of the principle than in the uses which are now made of certain of the canine tribe in rural sports. The pointer, setter, springing spaniel, and all that class of dogs, are understood to be descended from one stock, the Spanish spaniel, with a slight crossing from the fox-hound, for the sake of improving the speed. The original animal may be considered as a record of the original powers, to which every thing else must be regarded as an addition made by human training. Now, the original animal is only gifted by nature with a fine scent for game, and a disposition to make a momentary pause on seeing it, for the purpose of springing upon it. Man has converted this inclination to a temporary pause into a habit of making a full stop, and the animal, instead of gratifying his destructive tendency by flying upon the game, has been trained to be contented with witnessing a vicarious execution by the gun of his master. It is a mistake to suppose that only the spaniel tribe is capable of serving sportsmen in the capacity of pointers and setters. There are other classes of dogs which perseverance would enable, to a certain extent, to act in the same way. Gervase Markham, who wrote on sports in the sixteenth century, speaks of having seen dogs of the bastard tumbler kind adapted to act as setters, though not so well as those of the spaniel kind. Mr Blaine is of opinion that this power can be cultivated in most dogs. It has even been elicited in another and very different class of animals-the hog. Some years ago, Mr Toomer, gamekeeper to Sir Henry Mildmay, bethought him of teaching a pig to act as a pointer, having been struck by the scenting powers of the animal in its search for palatable roots under ground. He began by allowing a young female pig to accompany his pointers, in their breaking lessons, to the field. Within a fortnight, to his own surprise, she was able to hunt and point partridges and rabbits. There being an abundance of these creatures near the keeper's lodge, her education advanced rapidly by frequent exercise, and in a few weeks she was able to retrieve game as well as the best pointer. Slut, as this extraordinary animal was called, was considered to have a more acute scent than any pointer in the charge of the keeper; and it was a kennel of the highest character. They hunted her principally on moors and heaths; and it often hapThoughts and Recollections, by one of the Last Century. London: Murray. 1825. Encyclopa dia of Rural Sports, 792. pened, that when left behind, she would come of her own accord and join the pointers. "She has often stood a jack snipe when all the pointers had passed it: she would back the dogs when they pointed, but the dogs refused to back her until spoke to-Toomer's dogs being all trained to make a general halt when the word was given, whether any dog pointed or not, so that she has been frequently standing in the midst of a field of pointers. In consequence of the dogs being not much inclined to hunt when she was with them (for they dropped their sterns, and showed symptoms of jealousy), she did not very often accompany them, except for the novelty. Her pace was mostly a trot; she was seldom known to gallop, except when called to go out shooting: she would then come home off the forest at full stretch, and be as much elated as a dog at being shown the gun. She always expressed great pleasure when game, either dead or living, was placed before her. She has fre quently stood a single partridge at forty yards' distance, her nose in a direct line to the bird; after standing some considerable time, she would drop like a setter, still keeping her nose in an exact line, and would continue in that position until the game moved if it tock wing, she would come up to the place, and draw slowly after it; and when the bird dropped, she would stand it as before." * These facts, together with what common observation presents to us in domesticated parrots, blackbirds, ravens, magpies, monkeys, &c., place the educability of animals upon a basis, in our opinion, not to be shaken. But the most wonderful thing, and the most convincing part of the proof, remains, in the fact of the transmission of acquired qualities by animals to progeny. The habit which education has conferred upon the pointer appears in his puppy, who may be seen earnestly standing at swallows and pigeons in a farm-yard, before he has ever once seen such a thing done by his seniors, or received the least instruction. Here only the object is amiss; the act itself is perfect. As may be readily supposed, the puppy of a race of English pointers cau be trained to the whole business of the field in onetenth of the time which the most experienced breaker would require to effect any improvement upon the simple instinct of the pause in an original Spanish spa niel. On the subject of the hereditary transmission of acquired qualities by animals, we have some curious information from the venerable naturalist, Mr T. A. Knight. In a communication to the Royal Society in 1807, Mr Knight cited several instances of domesticated anuna s inheriting the acquired habits of their parents. *In all animals," he says, "this is observable; but in the dog it exists to a wonderful extent; and the offspring appears to inherit not only the passions and propeasities, but even the resentments, of the family from which it springs. I ascertained that a terrier, whe parents had been in the habit of fighting with polecats, will instantly show every mark of anger when he first perceives the scent of that animal, though the animal itself be wholly concealed from his sight. A yueng 1 spaniel brought up with the terriers showed no mars of emotion at the scent of the polecat, but it pursued a woodcock, the first time it saw one, with clamour and exultation: and a young pointer, which I am certan had never seen a partridge, stood trembling with anxiety, its eyes fixed and its muscles rigid, when e ducted into the midst of a covey of those birds. Yet each of these dogs are mere varieties of the sam species, and to that species none of these habits are given by nature. The peculiarities of character cas therefore be traced to no other source than the a quired habits of the parents, which are inherited by the offspring, and become what I call instinctive hereditary propensities." It appears from another communication made by M Knight to the same society in 1837, that he had thes been pursuing investigations on this subject for nearly sixty years. He proceeds in that communication Daniel's Rural Sports H |