THE IRISH TERRIER. 



BY DR. J. S. NIVEN. 



all things Hibernian, the history of this dog is 

 rj somewhat mixed; in fact, very little is known about 

 =|> it. From very old men with whom I talked twenty 

 years ago, some of whom could recollect back sixty years 

 or more, I have learned that Terriers of a red or badger 

 color were numerous in the days of their boyhood, and 

 were largely used for all kinds of field sports, both on land 

 and water. From what I could learn, these dogs were at 

 that time of a much larger type than those bred nowadays. 

 It is only within the last lew years that any prominence 

 has been given to the Irish Terrier by fanciers. Formerly 

 they were kept for sport alone, and very little attention was 

 paid to breeding for any special type, the object being sim- 

 ply to get good hard workers which were able to endure a 

 great amount of fatigue and exposure to severe weather. 

 The principal uses to which these dogs were put in olden 

 days were hunting the water-rat in the rivers, drawing 

 badgers in the mountains, and killing rabbits as they were 

 bolted by ferrets from the warrens. They were also used 

 as watch-dogs about the cotter houses of Ireland. 



About fifteen years ago the breed had become very much 

 degenerated by the admixture of Scotch Terriers, which 

 were being largely imported into Ireland as ratters. The 

 gentlemen who were chiefly interested in bringing this same 

 breed of Terriers up again to an established type were 

 Messrs. Mortin, Erwin, Ridgway, Montgomery, Jamison, 

 Crosby, Smith, and Marks, and later, Messrs. Krehl, Des- 

 pard, Graham, Pirn, Carey, Waterhouse, and others. In res- 

 cuing the breed from utter destruction, these gentlemen used 

 every means within their reach, and have been well rewarded; 



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