DOGS. (IRISH WATER-SPANIEL, WAVY-COATED RETRIEVER, DEER-HOUND.) 257 



lemon and whites. After them come the black and 

 whites (with or without tan), then the pure_ black, 

 and lastly the pure liver. Dark liver-ticked is, per- 

 haps, the most beautiful color of all. 



Irish Water-Spaniel, The Irish water-spaniel 

 is the most useful dog for wild-fowl shooting in 

 existence. These spaniels, if properly trained, 

 are the most tractable and obedient of all dogs, 

 and possess in a marked degree the invaluable 

 qualities of never giving up or giving in. 



The head is by no means long, with very little brow, 

 but moderately wide. It is covered with curls, rather 

 longer and more open than those of the body, nearly 

 to the eyes, but not so as to be wigged like the poo- 

 dle. Face very long, and quite bare of curl, the hair 

 being short and smooth, though not glossy; nose 

 broad, and nostrils well developed ; teeth strong and 

 level ; eyes small and set almost flush without eye- 

 brows. The top-knot is a characteristic of the true 

 breed, and is estimated accordingly. It should fall 

 between and over the eyes in a peaked form. The 

 ears are long, the leather extending, when drawn for- 

 ward, a little beyond the nose, and the curls with 

 which they are clothed two or three inches beyond. 

 The ears are thickly covered with curls, which grad- 

 ually lengthen toward the tips. The chest is small 

 compared with most breeds of similar substance. The 

 stifles are almost always straight, giving an appear- 

 ance of legginess. The legs should be straight, and the 

 feet large but strong ; the toes are somewhat open, 

 and covered with short, crisp curls. In all dogs of 

 this breed the legs are thickly clothed with short 

 curls, slightly pendent behiud and at the sides, and 

 some have them all round, hanging in ringlets for 

 some time before the annual shedding. No feather 

 like that of the setter should be shown. The front of 

 the hind-legs below the hocks is always bare. The tail 

 is very thick at the root, where it is clothed with very 

 short hair. Beyond the root the hair is short, so as 

 to look as if the'tail had been clipped, which it some- 

 times is at our shows, but the natural bareness of the 

 tail is a true characteristic of the breed. The coat is 

 composed of short curls, not woolly, which betrays 

 the poodle-cross. A soft, flossy coat is objected to as 

 indicative of an admixture with some of the land-span- 

 iels. The color must be a deep, pure liver, without 

 white ; but, as in other breeds, a white toe will occa- 

 sionally appear even on the best-bred litter. The 

 symmetry of this dog is not very great. 



Wavy-coated Retriever. The points of this 

 dog are the following: 



The skull should be long, wide, and flat at the top, 

 with a very slight furrow down the middle. Stop by 

 no means pronounced; but the brow not absolutely 

 in a straight line with the nose. The nose and jaws 

 are to be considered from two points of view first, as 

 to the powers of scent ; and, secondly, as to the ca- 

 pacity tor carrying a hare or a pheasant without risk 

 of damage. For both purposes the jaws should be 

 long, and for the development of scenting-powers the 

 nose should be wide, the nostrils open, and its end 

 moist and cool. The ears must be small, to suit the 

 ideas of the Labrador fancier. With the setter-cross 

 they are considerably larger. In any case, they 

 should lie close to the head and be set on low. With 

 regard to the hair on them, it must be short in the 

 Labrador, but in the setter-cross it is nearly as long 

 as in the setter itself. The eyes should be or medium 

 size, intelligent, and mild, indicating a good tempera- 

 ment. Whatever be the breed of this dog, his neck 

 should be long enough to allow him to stoop in seek- 

 ing for the trail. A chumpy neck is especially bad ; 

 for, while a little dog may get along on a foot-scent 

 with a short neck, a comparatively large and unwieldy 

 dog tires himself terribly by the necessity for crouch- 

 ing in his fast pace. The loins and back must be 

 TOL. xxiv. 17 A 



wide and deep to enable the retriever to carry a hare 

 over a stone wall, a brook, or a gate. The quarters 

 and stifles must be muscular for the same reason ; and 

 to enable the retriever to do his work fast enough to 

 please the modern sportsman, with ease to himself, 

 the stifles should be set wide apart. The shoulders 

 should be long and sloping ; otherwise, even with a 

 proper length of neck, the dog can not- stoop to a foot- 

 scent without fatigue. The chest should be broad as 

 well as deep, with well-developed back ribs. The 

 legs must not only be long and muscular, but they 

 must be clean and free from gumminess. The knees 

 should be broad, and the hocks well developed and 

 clean. The feet are rather larger proportionately than 

 in the setter, but they should be compact, and the 

 toes well arched, soles thick and strong. The tail in 

 the " Bond Moore " type should be bushy and not 

 feathered, which is the sign of a setter-cross. It should 

 be carried gayly, but not curled over the back. The 

 coat is short, 'but not so short as in the pointer or the 

 hound ; set close, slightly wavy and glossy. The walk 

 of the Labrador is not so loose and shambling as that 

 of the large Newfoundland. The evidences of good 

 temperament should be regarded with great care, 

 since the utility of this dog mainly depends on it. A 

 sour-headed brute, with a vicious look about the eyes, 

 should at once be penalized to the full extent of this 

 point ; and a retriever shown with a muzzle on, as 

 has often happened, should be regarded with great 

 suspicion. A dog may be so savage in a show as to 

 require a muzzle, yet perfectly mild and inoffensive 

 in the field; but such cases are exceptional. The 

 color should be a rich black, free from rustiness. In 

 many good imported dogs there is a white star on the 

 breast and a white toe or two ; but the fashionable 

 breeders now prefer a total absence of white, and this 

 point is therefore to be estimated accordingly, as long 

 as Dr. Bond Moore and his coadjutors maintain their 

 position. 



Deer-Hound. In its skull the deer-hound re- 

 sembles the large, coarse greyhound, it being 

 long and moderately wide, especially between 

 the ears. There is a very slight rise at the eye- 

 brows, so as to take off what would otherwise 

 be a straight line from tip of nose to occiput. 

 The upper surface is level in both directions. 

 The other points of the dog are as follow : 



The jaws should be loner, and the teeth level and 

 strong ; nostrils open, but not very wide, and the end 

 pointed and black ; cheeks well clothed with muscle ; 

 but the bone under the eye neither prominent nor hol- 

 low. The ears should be small and thin, and carried 

 a trifle higher than those of the smooth greyhound, 

 but should turn over at the tips. Pricked ears are 

 sometimes met with, as in the rough greyhound, but 

 they are not correct ; they should be thinly fringed 

 with hair at the edges only ; that on their surfaces 

 should be soft and smooth ; eyes full and dark hazel, 

 sometimes by preference blue. The neck should be 

 long enough! to allow the dog to stoop to the scent at 

 a fast pace, but not so long and tapering as the grey- 

 hound's. The chest is deep rather than wide, and in 

 its general formation it resembles that of the grey- 

 houncl,^ being shaped with great elegance, and at the 

 same time so that the shoulHcrs can play freely on its 

 sides. The girth of a full-sized dog deer-hound should 

 be at least two inches greater than his height; but a 

 round, unwieldy chest is not to be desired, even if 

 girthing well. Shoulders long, oblique, and muscu- 

 lar. A deep and wide development of muscle filling 

 up the space between wide back ribs and somewhat 

 rugged nips is a desideratum. A good loin should 

 measure twenty-five or twenty-six inches in show 

 condition. The back ribs are often rather shallow, but 

 they must be wide, or what is called " well sprunar," 

 and the loin should be arched; drooping to the root 

 of the tail. The elbows and stifles, if well placed, give 



