Europe. It measures 36 inches at the shoulders and has an osseous and muscular development perfectly in keeping with its large stature, and at the same time has admirable proportions and lightness, and its motions are comparable to those of the finest horse.

FIG. 2—DR. CHARCOT'S LARGE DANISH DOG.

Among the English dogs or mastiffs, we very frequently meet with individuals in which the upper incisors and canines are placed back of the corresponding ones in the lower jaw, this being due to a slight shortening of the bones of the upper jaw, not visible externally. This is the first degree of an artist of teratological development, which, since the middle ages, has become very marked in certain subjects, and has given rise to a variety in which this defect has become hereditary. Such is the origin of the breed of bulldogs. The latter were originally as large as the mastiffs. Carried to Spain under Philip II., they have there preserved their primitive characters, but the bulldogs remaining in England have continued to degenerate, so that now the largest are scarcely half the size of the Spanish bulldog, and the small ones attain hardly the size of the pug, although they preserve considerable width of chest and muscular strength.

POINTERS.

Man hunted for ages with dogs that he united in a pack; but these packs were of a very heterogeneous composition, since they included strong dogs, light dogs very swift of foot, shepherds' dogs, and others noted for acuteness of scent, and even mongrels due to a crossing with the wolf. It is from the promiscuousness of all these breeds that has arisen our ordinary modern dog.

The pointer is of relatively recent creation, and is due to the falconers. In our western countries, falconry dates from the fourth and fifth centuries, as is proved by the capitularies of Dagobert. This art, therefore, was not brought to us from the East by the crusaders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as stated by Le Maout in his Natural History of Birds.

The falconer soon saw the necessity of having a dog of nice scent having for its role the finding or hunting up of game without pursuing it, in order to permit the falcons themselves to enter into the sport. This animal was called the bird dog, and was regarded as coming from various countries, especially from Spain, whence the name of spaniel that a breed of pointers has preserved. It is quite curious to find that for three or four centuries back there have been no spaniels in Spain. From Italy also and from southern climes comes what is called the bracco, whence doubtless is derived the French name braque and English brach. Finally the agasse of the Bretons was certainly also one of the progenitors of our present pointers. It was, says Oppian, a breed of small and very courageous dogs, with long hair, provided with strong claws and jaws, that followed hares on the sly under shelter of vine-stocks and reeds and sportively brought them back to their masters after they had captured them. We have certainly here the source of our barbets and griffons.

Finally the net hunters of the middle ages also contributed much to the creation of the pointer, for it is to them that we owe the setter. It is erroneously, in fact, that certain authors have attributed the creation of this dog to hunters with the arquebuse, since this weapon did not begin to be utilized in hunting until the sixteenth century. Gaston Phoebus, who died in 1391, shows, in his remarkable work, that the net hunters made use of Spanish setters and that it was they who created the true pointer—the animal that fascinates game by its gaze. By the same pull of their draw net they enveloped in its meshes both the setter and the prey that it held spellbound.

Upon the whole, we see that at the end of the middle ages there existed three types of pointers: spaniels, brachs and very hairy dogs, that Charles Estienne, in his Maison Rustique, of the sixteenth century, calls barbets. It is again with these three types that are connected all the present pointers, which we are going to pass rapidly in review.

The Brach hounds.—To-day we reserve the name of brachs for all pointers with short hair. The type of the old brach still exists in Italy, Spain, the south of France and in Germany. It is characterized by its large size, its robust form, its large head, its long, flat ears, its square muzzle separated from the forehead by a deep depression, its large nose, often double (that is to say, with nostrils separated by a deep vertical groove), its pendent lips, its thick neck, its long and strong paws provided with dew claws, both on the fore and the hind feet, and its short hair, which is usually white and marked with brown or orange-yellow spots. The old brach breed has been modified by the breeders of different countries, either by hygiene or by crossing with ordinary dogs, according to the manner of hunting, according to taste, and even according to fashion. Thus in England, where "time is money" reigns in every thing and where they like to hunt quickly and not leisurely, the brach has been rendered lighter and swifter of foot and has become the pointer. In France, while it has lost a little in size and weight, it has preserved its moderate gait and has continued to hunt near its master, "under the gun," as they say. The same is the case in Spain, Italy and Germany even. In France there are several varieties or sub-breeds of brach hounds. The old French brach, which is nothing more than the old type, preserved especially in the south, where it is called the Charles the Tenth brach, is about twenty-four inches in height, and has a white and a maroon coat, which is somewhat coarse. It often has a cleft nose and dew-claws on all the feet. The brach of the south scarcely differs from the preceding except in color. Its coat has a white ground covered with pale orange blotches and spots of the same color. The St. Germain brach is finer bred, and appears to be a pointer introduced into France in the time of Charles X. It has a very fine skin, very fine hair of a white and orange color. The Bourbon brach has the characters of the old French brach, with a white coat marked here and there with large brown blotches, and the white ground spotted with the same color; but what particularly characterizes this dog is that it is born with a stumpy tail, as if three-quarters of it had been chopped off. The Dupuy brach is slender and has a narrow muzzle, as if it had some harrier blood in its veins. It is white, with large dark maroon blotches. The Auvergne brach resembles the southern brach, but has a white and black coat spotted with black upon white. The pointer, or English brach (Fig. 3), descends from the old Spanish brach, but has been improved and rendered lighter and much swifter of foot by the introduction of the blood of the foxhound into its veins, according to the English cynegetic authors themselves. The old pointer was of a white and orange color, and was indistinguishable from our St. Germain. The pointer now fancied is white and maroon and has a stronger frame than the pointer of twenty years ago. The Italian brachs are heavy, with lighter varieties, usually white and orange color, more rarely roan, and provided with dew-claws, this being a sign of purity of breed according to Italian fanciers. The German brachs are of the type of the old brach, with a stiff white and maroon coat, the latter color being so extensively distributed in spots on the white as to make the coat very dark.