Irish wolf-dog was a greyhound; and
there can be little doubt that it is the same dog we find mentioned
under the name of the Irish greyhound.

Buffon remarks that "the Irish greyhounds are of a very ancient race.
They were called by the ancients, dogs of Epirus, and Albanian dogs.
Pliny gives an account of a combat between one of these dogs, first
with a lion, and then with an elephant. In France they are so rare,
that I never saw above one of them, which appeared, when sitting, to
be about five feet high. He was totally white, and of a mild and
peaceable disposition."

The following description of these dogs, translated from a Celtic
poem, is probably an accurate one:--

"An eye of sloe, with ear not low,
With horse's breast, with depth of chest,
With breadth of loin, and curve in groin
And nape set far behind the head--
Such were the dogs that Fingal bred."

It is probable that even in Scotland very few of the pure breed of
dogs are left, but those which are show a surprising combination of
speed, strength, size, endurance, courage, sagacity, docility, and it
may be added, dignity. The purest specimens of the deer-hound now to
be met with are supposed to be those belonging to Captain M'Neill of
Colonsay, two of them being called Buskar and Bran. And here let me
give an extract from an interesting and graphic account, published by
Mr. Scrope, of the performance of these dogs in the chase of a stag.
Let us fancy a party assembled over-night in a Highland glen,
consisting of sportsmen, deer-stalkers, a piper and two deer-hounds,
cooking their supper, and concluding it with the never-failing
accompaniment of whisky-toddy. Let us fancy them reposing on a couch
of dried fern and heather, and being awoke in the morning with the
lively air of "Hey, Johnny Cope." While their breakfast is preparing,
they wash and refresh themselves at a pure mountain stream, and are
soon ready to issue forth with Buskar and Bran. The party proceeds up
a rocky glen, where the stalker sees a stag about a mile off. He
immediately prostrates himself on the ground, and in a second the rest
follow his example. We will not follow all the different manoeuvres of
the deer-stalker and his followers, but bring them at once near the
unconscious stag. After performing a very considerable circuit, moving
sometimes forwards and sometimes backwards, the party at length arrive
at the back of a hillock, on the opposite side of which the