The Black Wavy-Coated Retriever. 159 



the foxhound was bound to give power of steady and persistent questing, 

 the bloodhound, the beagle, the terrier, and the colley were all suggested ; 

 but with the advent and progress of shows came the desire, which has 

 continued to grow ever since, to combine in the same animal good looks 

 and good qualities, and in no breed has this been better attained than in 

 the retriever proper, as he is sometimes called, in distinction to the 

 retrieving spaniel, setter, or other distinct breed that may be used to 

 perform his special work. 



Of modern retrievers there are four varieties, separated from each other 

 by distinctions in coat and colour. These are the flat or wavy-coated, and 

 the curly-coated, and these again are each divided into black and brown 

 or liver-coloured. 



At very few shows now is a class for liver-coloured dogs provided, the 

 black variety having so grown in public estimation as to have pushed 

 the liver almost out of sight ; and this I, for one, regret, for there are 

 many very excellent specimens of the reds ; and I think it should be one 

 of the objects of dog show promoters to encourage, not discourage, the 

 production and propagation of varieties having distinct character, no 

 matter if for the time being they should be unpopular. " Every dog has 

 his day," says the proverb; and the time may yet come when brown 

 retrievers will be as fashionable as blacks are now ; and I think it is a 

 pity they should now be so entirely ignored. 



In considering these four varieties, we will take first the one that I 

 think undoubtedly occupies the chief place. 



CHAPTER XXXII. THE BLACK WAVY-COATED 

 RETRIEVER. 



BY CORSINCON. 



WHEN " Stonehenge" published his first edition of the "Dogs of the 

 British Islands," about ten years ago, he wrote anent retrievers that they 

 must be either " black or black and tan, or black with tabby or brindled 



