253 



DOGS. (Fox-HouND, BASSET-HOUND.) 



treat liberty of action, and the contrary if they are 

 confined by being too close together : these points, 

 therefore, should be carefully examined. The elbows 

 must be well let down, to give length to the true arm, 

 and should be quite straight. The stifles should be 

 wide apart, and set well forward, to give length to 

 the upper thiy;h. The high symmetry of this dog is 

 essential to his position as a companionable animal. 

 Great bone and muscle must go to the formation of 

 the legs and quarters ; and the bones must be well 

 put together at the knees and hocks, which should be 

 long and well developed. The quarters are deep, but 

 seldom wide, and there is often a considerable slope to 

 the tail. Some of the most successful dogs lately exhib- 

 ited have been nearly straight-backed ; but this shape 

 is not approved by deer-stalkers. The feet should be 

 well arched in the toes, and cat-like ; a wide-spreading 

 foot is often met with, but they should be specially 

 condemned. The colors most in request are dark 

 blue, fawn, grizzle, and brindled, the latter with more 

 or less tint of blue. The fawn should have the tips 

 of the ears dark, but some otherwise good fawns are 

 pale throughout. The grizzle generally has a decided 

 tint of blue in it. White is to be avoided either on 

 breast or toes, but it should not disqualify a dog. The 

 coat is coarser on the back than elsewhere ; and by 

 many good judges it is thought that even on the back 

 it should be intermediate between silk and wool, and 

 not the coarse hair often met with ; and there is no 

 doubt that both kinds of coat are found in some of the 

 best strains. The whole body is clothed with a rough 

 coat, sometimes amounting to shagginess ; that of the 

 muzzle is longer in proportion than elsewhere, but 

 the mustache should not be wiry, and should stand 

 out in irregular tufts. There should be no approach 

 to feather on the legs, as in the setter, but their insude 

 should be hairy. The tail should be long and gently 

 curved, without any twist. It should be thinly clothed 

 with hair only. 



Fox-Honnd. The essential points of a good 

 fox-hound are these : 



The head should be of full size, but by no means 

 heavy; brow pronounced, but not high or sharp. 

 There must be good length and breadth, sufficient to 

 give, in the dog hound, a girth in front of the ears of 

 fully sixteen inches. The nose should be long (four 

 and a half inches) and wide, with open nostrils. Ears 

 set on low, and lying close to the cheeks. The neck 

 must be long and clean, without the slightest throati- 

 ness. It should taper nicely from the shoulders to 

 the head, and the upper outline should be slightly 

 convex. The shoulders should be long and well 

 clothed with muscle, without 

 being heavy, especially at the 

 points. They must be well 

 sloped, and the true arm be- 

 tween the front and the elbow 

 must be long and muscular, 

 but free from fat or lumber. 

 The chest should girth over 

 thirty inches in a tw ; enty-four- 

 ineh hound, and the back-ribs 

 must be very deep. The back 

 and loin must both be very 

 muscular, running into each 

 other without any contraction 

 or "nipping" between them. 

 The couples must be wide, 

 even to raggedness, and there 

 should be the very slight- 

 est arch in the loin* so as to 

 1"_ M-arcely perceptible. The 

 lii nd -quarters or propellers 

 arc required to be very strong, 

 and as endurance is of oven 

 more consequence than speed, 

 Rtraight stifles are preferred to 

 those much bent, as in the 

 greyhound. Elbows set quite 



straight, and neither turned in nor out, are a sine 

 qua non. They must be well let down by means 

 of the long true arm. Every master of fox-hounds 

 insists on legs us straight as a post, and as strong; 

 size of bone at the amde being specially regarded 

 as all-important. The desire for straightness is, I 

 think, carried to excess, as the very straight leg 

 soon knuckles over, and this defect may almost al- 

 ways be seen more or less in old stallion hounds. The 

 bone can not, in my opinion, be too large ; but I pre- 

 fer a slight ankle at the knee to a perfectly straight 

 line. The feet in all cases should be round and cat- 

 like, with well-developed knuckles and strong horn, 

 which last is of the utmost importance. The color 

 and coat are not regarded as very important, so long as 

 the former is a " hound-color," and the latter is short, 

 dense, hard, and glossy. Hound-colors are black, tan 

 and white, black and white, and the various " pies " 

 compounded of white and the color of the hare and 

 badger, or yellow, or tan. The stern is gently arched, 

 earned gayly over the back, and slightly fringed with 

 hair below. The end should taper to a point. The 

 symmetry of the fox-hound is considerable, and what 

 is called " quality " is highly regarded. 



Basset-Hound. Mr. Everet Millars was the 

 first man to bring the breed of Basset-hounds 

 into notice, by exhibiting specimens at the 

 Crystal Palace show in London, some years 

 ago. Considerable excitement and amusement 

 was caused in canine circles, and the Basset 

 was pronounced by many to be an old English 

 turnspit, or an abnormal Dachshund, two 



A BASS-T-IIOU 



