The Dalmatian. 271 



cross between a dog and a tiger, would now be laughed at by any school- 

 boy, who might, indeed, suggest the leopard as the more likely animal to 

 produce a spotted dog. I do not know on what authority Youatt called 

 him the great Danish dog, a variety naturalists have described as much 

 larger and, in many respects, different from our carriage dog, and his 

 claim to be a Bengalese harrier seems to rest on the single fact that a 

 spotted dog resembling our modern Dalmatian was once brought from 

 Bengal to Spain. That he originally came from Dalmatia his name indi- 

 cates, and this view seems strengthened by the recorded fact that for two 

 centuries and a half he has been one of the domesticated dogs of Italy, a 

 country so near to his reputed native home that we can easily imagine his 

 being familiarised there long before he reached this dog-loving isle. When 

 the Dalmatian first became known in England I have been unable to dis- 

 cover. He was a favourite with the wealthy in the last century, and 

 continued to be considered an absolutely indispensable appendage to the 

 elaborately magnificent equipage and stable establishments of the great, 

 to which his highly ornamental appearance added splendour, and his 

 natural habits and love for the horse so well fitted him. 



Bewick gives an engraving of one so perfect in the clearly defined and 

 perfectly arranged spots that I have not the least doubt art improved on 

 Nature, just as Mr. Baker in "Dogs of the British Islands " has made 

 Captain's spots so very much more distinct with his pencil than Dame 

 Nature has with hers. 



Either of these engravings might, however, be taken as a model to 

 breed up to as regards colour and spots, but neither is so correct in that 

 respect as Mr. Moore has been in depicting Spotted Dick, the subject 

 of our engraving, although the body colour is too dark, not doing the dog 

 justice there, but the spots are given as they actually are. 



It has been assumed that the Dalmatian possesses an instinctive 

 fondness for the horse, but this I do not conceive was the cause of his being 

 attached to the carriage and stable ; but I rather suppose his ornamental 

 qualities were the attractions to owners of equipages, and that his liking 

 for horses and all connected with them has been fostered by habit and is 

 now inherited. 



' ' Idstone ' ' says he never knew a dog of the breed that did not readily 

 take to following horse and conveyance, but my experience has been 

 different, and I possess one now of prize blood that shows no propensity 



