Page:Cynegetica.djvu/100

84 which qualify them to emit a voice ſo ſweet and cheerful, ſo proper to give notice of their diſcoveries to their maſter, as well as to call together their ſtraggling companions, to unite their forces.

But there is a queſtion or two which have been ſometimes put me by my inquiſitive Brethren, to which I think it incumbent upon me in this place to give an anſwer. Firſt, I have been aſked, what or how many different ſorts of theſe Animals of Chace were originally created? What were thoſe firſt, kinds, out of which ſo many packs of innumerable ſhapes, tongues, ſizes, and colours, may be ſuppoſed to be produced?

My anſwer is ſhort and plain, yet ſomething fuller than the queſtions require: That, in my opinion, not only all Hounds or Beagles, but all Dogs whatſoever, even from the terrible Boar Dog to the little Flora, are all one in the firſt Creation; that every virtue and faculty, ſize or ſhape, which we find or improve in every Dog upon earth, were originally comprehended in the firſt parents of the ſpecies; and that