This animal is nearly extinct, or only to be met with at the mansions of one or two persons by whom he is kept more for show than use, the wild animals which he seemed powerful enough to conquer having long disappeared from the kingdom. The beauty of his appearance and the antiquity of his race are his only claims, as he disdains the chase of stag, fox, or hare, although he is ever ready to protect the person and the property of his master. His size is various, some having attained the height of four feet, and Dr. Goldsmith stales that he saw one as large as a yearling calf. He is shaped like a greyhound, but stouter; and the only dog which the writer from whom this account is taken ever saw approaching to his graceful figure, combining beauty with strength, is the large Spanish wolf-dog: concerning which he adds, that, showing one of these Spanish dogs to some friends, he leaped through a window into a cow-house, where a valuable calf was lying, and seizing the terrified animal, killed it in an instant; some sheep having in the same way disappeared, he was given away. The same writer says that his grandfather had an Irish wolf-dog which saved his mother's life from a wolf as she was paying a visit attended by this faithful follower. He rushed on his foe just when he was about to make his spring, and after a fierce struggle laid him dead at his mistress's feet. His name was Bran. [21] THE RUSSIAN GREYHOUND is principally distinguished by its dark-brown or iron-grey colour--its short semi-erect ears--its thin lanky body--long but muscular legs--soft thick hair, and the hair of its tail forming a spiral twist, or fan, (thence called the fan-tailed dog,) and as he runs having a very pleasing appearance. He hunts by scent as well as by sight, and, therefore, small packs of this kind are sometimes kept, against which the wolf, or even the bear, would stand little chance. He is principally used for the chase of the deer or the wolf, but occasionally follows the hare. The deer is the principal object of pursuit, and for this he is far better adapted than to contend with the ferocious wolf. His principal faults are want of activity and dexterity. He is met with in most parts of Russia, where his breed is carefully preserved by the nobility, with whom coursing is a favourite diversion. Some dogs of this breed were not long ago introduced into Ireland. THE GRECIAN GREYHOUND The author is glad that he is enabled to present his readers with the portrait of one now in the menagerie of the Zoological Society of London. It is the dog whose image is occasionally sculptured on the friezes of some of the ancient Grecian temples, and was doubtless a faithful portrait of one of the dogs which Xenophon the Athenian valued, and was the companion of the heroes of Greece in her ancient glory.