, and the last in subtlety and deceitfulness.
These (saith Strabo) are most apt for game, and called Sagaces by a
general name, not only because of their skill in hunting, but also for
that they know their own and the names of their fellows most exactly.
For if the hunter see any one to follow skilfully, and with likelihood
of good success, he biddeth the rest to hark and follow such a dog,
and they eftsoones obey so soon as they hear his name. The first kind
of these are often called harriers, whose game is the fox, the hare,
the wolf (if we had any), hart, buck, badger, otter, polecat,
lopstart, weasel, conie, etc.: the second height a terrier and it
hunteth the badger and grey only: the third a bloodhound, whose office
is to follow the fierce, and now and then to pursue a thief or beast
by his dry foot: the fourth height a gazehound, who hunteth by the
eye: the fifth a greyhound, cherished for his strength and swiftness
and stature, commended by Bratius in his _De Venatione_, and not
unremembered by Hercules Stroza in a like treatise, and above all
other those of Britain, where he saith: "Magna spectandi mole
Britanni;" also by Nemesianus, libro Cynegeticon, where he saith:
"Divisa Britannia mittit Veloces nostrique orbis venatibus aptos," of
which sort also some be smooth, of sundry colours, and some
shake-haired: the sixth a liemer, that excelleth in smelling and
swift-running: the seventh a tumbler: and the eighth a thief whose
offices (I mean of the latter two) incline only to deceit, wherein
they are oft so skilful that few men would think so mischievous a wit
to remain in such silly creatures.
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