The German Boarhound. 281 



arrange a standard of excellence and to re-name the breed the German 

 mastiff. 



There is, I think, much to be said in favour of this, for most of them, 

 and particularly those I have seen selected by German judges for prize 

 honours, exhibited more mastiff characteristics from an English point of 

 view than hound properties. 



All this shows a haziness surrounding the breed which, I frankly 

 confess, I have not, so far, been able to penetrate, and it was rendered 

 none the less dense by the variety of types among the thirty odd 

 specimens shown at Hanover, in 1879, by native breeders. Among these 

 there was great diversity in size, style, and colour. The reds and 

 brindles seemed to be most appreciated by the judges. Some of the 

 brindles were remarkably rich in colour, and markedly so a fine upstanding 

 and open-countenanced dog called Caesar, who took premier honours, as 

 he had also done at the Berlin Show in 1878. There were also, however, 

 mouse colours, blues, and blue mottles, the latter essentially a great 

 Dane colour ; and one, a bitch called Tigress, the property of H.S.H. 

 Prince Albert Solms, was black and white spotted, pretty evenly so, and 

 not unlike a gigantic Dalmatian with the spots exaggerated. 



Regarding this peculiarity of marking, it may be well to observe that 

 the well-known writer, Youatt, recognises the Dalmatian and the great 

 Dane as identical, except in size, an opinion from which I differ, for 

 reasons given elsewhere. 



In general appearance the German boarhound shows a good deal of the 

 mastiff, but is not so massive as our best modern specimens. The whole 

 head, and particularly the jaw, is longer, and this is added to in 

 appearance by the absurd practice of mutilation of the ears. When left 

 on the ears fall neatly, and are rather smaller than in our mastiff. The 

 general build and carriage shows a combination of strength and agility, 

 and the cut up flank is absent or but slight. The stern is not carried so 

 gaily as in our hounds, and he entirely lacks those flews, long folding 

 ears, and dewlap characteristics of our slow hounds. The coat is short, 

 thick, but soft and close, and on many specimens I have observed dew- 

 claws. I merely mention this latter fact because so many will still 

 persist in claiming these appendages as peculiar to certain breeds, 

 although very little attention to facts would show that they occasionally 

 appear in all. 



