

THE MALTESE TERRIER. 



BY Miss A. H. WHITNEY. 



before the existence of other "toy" or 

 exquisite little creature was the ad- 

 mired companion and faithful friend of the ladies 

 highest in rank in Greece. Later, when Rome ruled the 

 world, he continued to be first favorite with the fair sex. 

 Historians considered him worthy of mention, sculptors 

 carved his image, he was the darling of wealth and luxury; 

 truly a "gentle dogge," as Doctor Caius describes him. In 

 the first century of our era, Strabo extols his beauty, his 

 diminutive size, the esteem in which he was held, and adds: 

 "Yet are they not small in their intelligence or unstable in 

 their love." What a pity that in modern times the dainty, 

 quick-witted, affectionate little Canis Melitceus should be 

 so nearly extinct, so little known. From sturdy Skye to 

 pampered Blenheim, Spaniels owe more than a little of 

 their beauty to a cross, more or less remote, with the Mal- 

 tese; yet it is now well-nigh impossible to obtain a really 

 fine specimen, for love or money. 



Malta is as barren of them as America, at the present 

 time; poor ones, indeed average specimens, are to be found 

 both in the East and West Indies, but the best are in Eng- 

 land, where they have been carefully bred, with more or less 

 success, by a few fanciers during the past forty years. Of 

 course unscrupulous dealers have always a supply of long- 

 haired little mongrels, glossy white, and freshly combed 

 and flat-ironed into smoothness of coat, to palm off upon 

 the unsuspecting customer in search of a "pure Maltese;" 

 but anyone who has seen both Poodles and Maltese need not 

 be imposed upon. Reclining upon his cushion by the side 

 of his mistress, a pure-bred little Maltese looks more like a 



32 C497) 



