The speed of the greyhound has been said to be equal to that of the
fleetest horse. A singular circumstance, which occurred at Doncaster,
proved that it was not much inferior. A mare cantering over the
Doncaster course, her competitor having been withdrawn, was joined by a
greyhound bitch when she had proceeded about a mile. She seemed
determined to race with the mare, which the jockey humoured, and
gradually increased his pace, until at the distance they put themselves
at their full speed. The mare beat her antagonist only by a head. The
race-horse is, perhaps, generally superior to the greyhound on level
ground, but the greyhound would have the advantage in a hilly country.
Lord Rivers succeeded to Major Topham and Colonel Thornton, the owners
of Major and Snowball, as the leading man on the course. His kennels at
Strathfieldsaye were the pride of the neighbouring country. At first he
bore away almost every prize, but breeding too much in and in, and for
speed more than for stoutness, the reputation of his kennel considerably
declined before his death.
In 1797 a brace of greyhounds coursed a hare over the edge of a
chalk-pit at Offham, in Sussex. The hare and both the dogs were found
dead at the bottom of the pit.
On another occasion a hare was chased by a brace of greyhounds: she was
killed at the distance of seven miles from the place at which they
started. Both of the dogs were so exhausted, that every possible
assistance being given, they were with difficulty recovered.
The English greyhound hunts by sight alone; not because he is altogether
devoid of scent, but because he has been taught to depend upon his
speed, and that degree of speed which is utterly incompatible with the
searching out of the scent. It is like a pack of hounds, running breast
high, with the game in view. They are then running by sight, and not by
scent, almost doubling their usual pace, and sometimes, from an
unexpected turning of the fox or hare, thrown out for a little while.
The hound soon recovers the track by his exquisite sense of smell. The
English greyhound is never taught to scent his game, but, on the
contrary, is called off the moment he has lost sight of the hare, the
re-starting of which is left to the spaniel.
The English greyhound is distinguished by its peculiarly long and
attenuated head and face, terminating in a singular sharpness of the
nose, and length of the muzzle or month. There are two results from
this: the length of the mouth gives a longer grasp and secures the prey,
but, as the nasal cavities and the cavity of the skull are
proportionately diminished, there is not so much room for the expansion
of the membrane of the nose, there is less power of scent, and less
space for the development of the brain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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