In every variety the dog is more or less endowed with a keen sight, strong powers of smell, sagacity almost amounting to reason, and considerable speed, so that he is admirably adapted for all purposes connected with the pursuit of game. He is also furnished with strong teeth, and courage enough to use them in defence of his master, and with muscular power sufficient to enable him to draw moderate weights, as we see in Kamtschatka and Newfoundland. Hence, among the old writers, dogs were divided into Pug-naces, Sagaces, and Celeres; but this arrangement is now superseded, various other systems having been adopted in modern times, though none perhaps much more satisfactory. Belonging to the division Vertebrate, class Mammalia, order Ferae, family Felidae, and sub-family Canina, the species is known as Canis familiaris, the sub-family being distinguished by having two tubercular teeth behind the canines on the upper jaw, with non-retractile claws, while the dog itself differs from the fox with which he is grouped, in having a round pupil in the eye instead of a perpendicular slit, as is seen in that animal.

The attempt made by Linnaeus to distinguish the dog as having a tall curved to the left, is evidently without any reliable foundation, as though there are far more with the tail on that side than on the right, yet many exceptions are to be met with, and among the pugs almost all the bitches wear their tails curled to the left. The definition, therefore, of Canis familiaris cauda (sinistrorsum) recurpata will not serve to separate the species from the others of the genus Canis} as proposed by the Swedish naturalist

POINTER, DRAKE. - See page 90.