424 British Dogs. 



ported by proof, and certainly, so far as the date at which it became known 

 to the British is concerned, it appears to be contradicted by the fact that 

 Hogarth represents the poodle in his time as the clipped, shaven, and 

 befooled canine fop he is still made by some of his admirers, so that if the 

 writer referred to is correct, the dog and the whimsical fashion of making 

 him as grotesque as possible must have at least spread rapidly. I am not 

 aware that he is referred to by any one of the few English writers on 

 dogs prior to Hogarth's time, whereas Gesner, the German writer, to 

 whose book on animals Dr. Cams contributed the chapters on English 

 dogs, describes the poodle as a German dog. 



Linnaeus recognised two varieties, the large and the small barbet or 

 water dog, which I take to mean the poodle. Dr. Fitzinger, in his book, 

 " Der Hund und seine Eacen," describes no less than six varieties. This 

 I give on the authority of " Wildf owler, " who wrote the article on poodles 

 in " Dogs of the British Islands," and gave there in detail Fitzinger's 

 description of each ; but I do not see that it would be of practical value 

 to transcribe it here. To obtain the six varieties there is a considerable 

 amount of hair-splitting, and where the class division is not a question of 

 coat it is merely one of size. We have poodles spoken of as French, 

 Spanish, German, and Eussian, but the terms do not convey a very clear 

 means of identification, or, indeed, express any concise thought of the 

 speaker in most instances. 



The black variety has been very fashionable of late years, and they 

 have been dubbed Eussian poodles, and probably those exhibited may 

 have been brought from Eussia ; but black has by all writers been 

 recognised as a poodle colour, and is, therefore, not peculiar to any 

 Eussian breed of them. 



The fact appears to be that they have, whatever their origin and native 

 home, spread over most of the countries of Europe, and doubtless have 

 been in different places more or less modified by various crosses. 



Our water dog of the early part of this century appears to have been an 

 impure poodle, and I have no doubt (as I stated in an article on the breed, 

 published in the " Country " a number of years ago) that the Irish water 

 spaniel has in him a considerable amount of poodle blood. These are the 

 only two breeds I know of who have the hair on any part of the body 

 growing in long spiral ringlets, or quills, which is peculiar to the poodle. 



Linnaeus says of the poodle, "hair long and curled, like a sheep," 



