The Schipperke’s tail, or rather its absence, has been the cause of much discussion, and at one time gave rise to considerable acrimonious feeling amongst fanciers.  On the introduction of this dog into Great Britain it arrived from abroad with the reputation of being a tailless breed, but whether Belgian owners accidentally conveyed that impression or did it purposely to give the breed an additional distinction is difficult to say.  Anyhow the Schipperke is no more “tailless” than the old English Sheepdog.  That is to say a larger number of individuals are born without any caudal appendage or only a stump of a tail than in any other variety of dogs.  It is said that a docked dog can be told from one that has been born tailless in this way; when the docked animal is pleased, a slight movement at the end of the spine where the tail was cut off is discernible, but the naturally tailless dog sways the whole of its hind-quarters.

CHAPTER XIII

THE BLOODHOUND

The Bloodhound was much used in olden times in hunting and in the pursuit of fugitives; two services for which his remarkable acuteness of smell, his ability to keep to the particular scent on which he is first laid, and the intelligence and pertinacity with which he follows up the trail, admirably fit him.  The use and employment of these dogs date back into remote antiquity.  We have it on the authority of Strabo that they were used against the Gauls, and we have certain knowledge that they were employed not only in the frequent feuds of the Scottish clans, and in the continuous border forays of those days, but also during the ever-recurring hostilities between England and Scotland.

Indeed, the very name of the dog calls up visions of feudal castles, with their trains of knights and warriors and all the stirring panorama of these brave days of old, when the only tenure of life, property, or goods was by the strong hand.

This feudal dog is frequently pictured by the poet in his ballads and romances, and in “The Lady of the Lake” we find the breed again mentioned as

  “—­dogs of black St. Hubert’s breed,
   Unmatched for courage, breath, and speed.”

These famous black Bloodhounds, called St. Huberts, are supposed to have been brought by pilgrims from the Holy Land.  Another larger breed, also known by the same name, were pure white, and another kind were greyish-red.  The dogs of the present day are probably a blend of all these varieties.

[Illustration:  BLOODHOUND CH.  CHATLEY BEAUFORT.  BY CH.  CHATLEY BLAZER—­CHATLEY FRIVOL.  BRED AND OWNED BY MRS. G. A. OLIPHANT, SHREWTON, WILTS]

The Bloodhound, from the nobler pursuit of heroes and knights, came in later years to perform the work of the more modern detective; but in this also his services were in time superseded by the justice’s warrant and the police officer.  We find it recorded about 1805, however, that “the Thrapston Association for the Prevention of Felons in Northamptonshire have provided and trained a Bloodhound for the detection of sheep-stealers.”