Greyhound

Greyhound, a large variety of the domestic dog, and one of the oldest forms, for it is figured on Egyptian monuments that are about five thousand years old. Greyhounds hunt by sight, and have long been bred for speed for coursing (q.v.), and to this quality, and in a less degree to courage, due to a strain of bull-dog blood, everything else has been sacrificed. A greyhound should stand about 24 inches at the shoulder; the head should be wide and flat with powerful jaws, the eyes dark and bright, the ears small and fine, the neck long and muscular, the shoulders sloping and very muscular, the chest deep and wide, the back square, beam-like, and long; the loins well-developed, the forelegs well set under the body, the feet rounded with large soles, the hind-legs well bent at the hocks, and the stern fine, long, and curved. The usual colours are black, red-white, brindled, fallow, fawn, or a mixture of some of these, but no good dog is of a bad colour.