GREYHOUND (AS. grighund, Icel. grey hundr, greyhound, from Icel. grey, dog [cf. grey baka, bitch, grey-karl, dogged churl], Ir., Gael. grech, hound + hundr, AS. hund, Goth. hunds, hound; ultimately connected with Lat. eanis, Gk. s6cor,kyon, Olr. cu, Lith. szic, Skt.avan, dog). Specifically and colloquially, the term 'greyhound' indicates the dog used in England to course the hare, and in America the jack-rabbit. But, in a broader sense, and in fact, the greyhounds are a group of dogs generically known as 'long dogs,' having a common origin and form, and, in all cases but one, a uniform method of pursuing their quarry—that is, by sight and not by scent. They vary from each other only in their hairy covering and the kind of game which they pur sue, both of which characteristics are due to local environment. The group embraces the English and American greyhounds, the borzoi or Russian wolfhound, the Scotch deerhound, the Irish wolfhound, the Persian and Levantine `long dogs,' and the Italian greyhound.
The earliest notices of the long dogs in litera ture are those in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and in the poem on "Hunting" by Gracian the Faliscan. Mention of the Canis Gallicus is also to be found in the works of Martial, Julius Pollux, and Op pian. In the time of Arrian (A.D. 150) coursing with greyhounds had become an established rec reation, and in the Cynegetica of Nemesian, in the third century, the greyhound, and the arts of breeding, rearing, and feeding him, are treated at length. There is no doubt as to the similarity of these dogs to the entire group of the dogs of to-day. The greyhound was so highly esteemed that it was protected even by the Salle, Burgun dian, and German barbaric codes, and Spelman is authority for the statement that at the Court of Charlemagne there was a special officer of the greyhound kennel.
The essential characteristics of both the Eng lish and the American greyhound are keen sight and great speed, consequently they have great muscular development of the hind legs and great chest capacity. The standard laid down by the
Greyhound Club, the ruling authority on the subject, comprises the following points: "Head, large between the cars, and pointed; long, strong jaws; eye bright and penetrating; ears small and folding when at rest, but semi-pricked when at gaze; a chest fairly deep, and as wide as con sistent with speed; strong shoulders, a broad and powerful back, and very muscular hind quar ters." The hair is as close, short, and tine as velvet. Color in the modern dog is by no means as uniform as it must have been in early times, when black or black and white prevailed.
husit WOLFHOUND OR GREYHOUND. This ri ety has a legendary history of great antiquity, and it was often seen in the Roman arena. The breed lies never been absent from the royal kennels of England since the reign of King John. Un doubtedly up to the time of the disappearance of the last wolf, about 1710. it was a great rough coated dog of the greyhound type. As the wolf be came scarce and the dog began to be used more for hunting deer and foxes. it became smaller and more slender, though still of proportions exceeding any other of this type of dog. One measured early in the nineteenth century for the Lintnean Society was 61 inches long, including the tail (17% inches), and stood 28% inches high at the shoul der. The hair had by that time become shorter and smoother, and the color varied from browns to black and white. Gradually the breed became smaller, until about 1850, when interest in it re vived, and to-day there are clubs on both sides of the Atlantic devoted to its development. The standard adopted is that of the earlier rough haired dog, with a minimum height for dogs of 31 inches and 120 pounds weight, with 28 inches and 90 pounds for bitches. Large modern specimens have been bred. Thu' was 34 inches high, and his female mate 30, yet both were true to the type and graceful in their movements.