4i 6 British Dogs. 



The mask is the black colour of the face. The more intense it is the 

 better, and it should include the eyes, running in a straight line across 

 the forehead ; the more sharply defined this mask is the better, as the 

 contrast between it and the body colour is thereby more strongly 

 marked. Separate from the mask is a black patch or thumb mark but 

 rarely met with, but much to be desired, and no pug can be considered 

 absolutely perfect without it. The loose skin of the head forms into 

 wrinkles, which alter in depth with the varying emotions of the dog ; 

 when seen at their greatest they give a frowning look to it. The lines of 

 these wrinkles can be traced when the skin is stretched, or smooth, by 

 deeper shades of colour. 



The trace is a dark line the blacker the better running along the 

 back right to the end of the tail. It should be clearly defined and 

 narrow, half an inch to an inch at broadest. 



The colour of the pure Morrison is a yellow fawn, the pure Willoughby 

 a cool stone or light drab ; but the two strains are now much interbred, 

 and good pugs of many various shades are met with. What is called the 

 " apricot fawn ' ' is now in vogue with many, but the great consideration 

 is to get the colour whatever its shade decided enough, and with a 

 very pronounced contrast between it and the black of the mask, trace, 

 and vent. The most common fault in colour is smuttiness, the mask 

 spreading over the whole head, the trace extending down each side, and 

 the fawn hairs of the body being more or less shaded with black. A 

 correspondent informs me that Mr. Beswicke Eoyd's family, who for 

 many generations owned a very fine breed of pugs, now lost, had one pair 

 the last that invariably threw one pure white pup in each litter. The 

 eminent veterinarian, Blain, records a similar instance in a pug bitch of 

 his own, which in three consecutive litters had one pure white pup. A 

 white pug with good points would be a curiosity, and the production of a 

 strain of them does not seem impossible, and is well worth the attention 

 of speculative breeders. 



A great fault with many pugs shown now is coarseness of coat. It 

 should be fine, smooth, soft, and glossy. The skin is extremely 

 loose, and when a handful is taken, the coat, although thus handled, 

 must on one side be felt against the grain, should be neither hard nor 

 woolly. 



The neck is short, thick, and fleshy, and with the skin loose and 



