THE COCKER SPANIEL. 343 



reason that they were crossed with the Irish Water Spaniel 

 to get the immense feather and ear so much admired in 

 the early days of dog shows in England, but which so 

 deeply impregnated the strain with the fatal top-knot and 

 rough coat that it has never been altogether eradicated. 

 This strain was also crossed with the Sussex; an own brother 

 to the famous Flirt and Nellie (blacks) was the pale liver- 

 colored George, who, mated with his sister Nellie, produced 

 one of the very best-looking Sussex Spaniels ever exhibited. 

 This will surely account for the eccentricities of color crop- 

 ping up now and again in the progeny. The tendency 

 being to reproduce the original color of their ancestors, the 

 color, or odd color, is often intensified by the Obo cross, as 

 no one can say how this strain was produced; and when 

 papers and letters were sent to Mr. Farrow about the red 

 and buff puppies got by Silk and Obo II., he was silent as 

 an oyster. I do not object to the reds and buffs myself, for 

 Hornell Velda, a buff, was the best Cocker ever seen in 

 America; and Brantford Red Jacket, a red, and Hornell 

 Dick, a buff, although of different type, are as good as 

 any we have.* 



Many of the oldest strains of Cockers were lemon, red, 

 and roan, or these colors were more or less intermingled 

 with white. In 1861, I bought a buff Cocker from a sailor 



* Prominent among the many breeders of Cocker Spaniels in the United 

 States and Canada may be mentioned; J. P. Willey, Salmon Falls, N. H.; L. 

 F. Whitman, 418 Wabash avenue, Chicago; American Cocker Kennels, box 

 277, Philadelphia, Penn.; Dr. J. S. Niven, London, Ontario, Canada; A. C. 

 Wilmerding, 163 Broadway, New York City; Hornell-Harmony Kennels, 

 Hornellsville, N. Y. ; O. B. Oilman, 40 Boylston street, Boston, Mass. ; Andrew 

 Laidlaw, "Woodstock, Ontario, Canada; Woodland Kennels, Woodstock, 

 Ontario, Canada; George H. Bush, 220 Main street, Buffalo, N. Y.; R. P. 

 Keasby, 6 Saybrook place, Newark, N. J.; G. Bell, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 

 C. A. Hinckley, Lee, Mass.; Charles M. Nelles, Brantford, Ontario, Canada; 

 Miss E. W. Lewis, 192 President street, Brooklyn, N Y. ; High Rock Cocker 

 Kennels, Lynn, Mass.; William Barnes, 4444 Wood street, Manayneck, Philadel- 

 phia, Penn.; George T. Whitehe'ad, 441 Chestnut avenue, Trenton, N. J., 

 Alexander Pope, 120 Tremont street, Boston, Mass. ; Frank F. Dole, 115 Blake 

 street, New Haven, Conn.; Woodstock Spaniel Kennels, Woodstock, Ontario, 

 Canada; R. C. Grignon, Kaukauna, Wis. ED. 



