428 British Dogs. 



As to the coat, I have already stated that I look npon the ringlet coat 

 as the true poodle coat, and the open woolly one as a modification of it 

 from crosses. 



In colours, the pure white or pure black are to be preferred, but there 

 are good specimens combining these colours, in which cases they appear 

 in patches. Youatt gives an engraving of one, a black and white, 

 which was copied in Stonehenge's " The Dog," and a dog exactly corre- 

 sponding to that engraving, and a first-rate specimen of a poodle was 

 some years ago in the possession of an innkeeper in Burton-on-Trent. 

 There are also specimens of a rufus colour, and although a black or a 

 white may be preferred, red coloured ones with all points good should 

 rather be encouraged than tabooed. 



The proportions of weight to height at shoulder may be put as about 

 l^lb. to the inch, but in some of the white corded specimens the propor- 

 tion of weight would be greater. 



CHAPTER VII. THE MALTESE TERRIER. 



BY COBSINCON. 



ALL English writers, new and old, that I have consulted, agree in one 

 thing, and that is, that in centuries long past Malta furnished toy dogs 

 for the "dainty dames and mincing mistresses" of both Greece and 

 Rome. 



It also appears to be a general agreement among these writers that 

 the island of Malta is identical with the Melita ascribed by ancient 

 writers as the home of these pet dogs, and, further, that we originally 

 obtained the breed from that place, although some of them recognise the 

 fact that no proof of that exists. 



Dr. Johannes Caius says (writing, be it remarked, of the toy spaniel 

 of his time) : " They are called Meliti, of the Island of Malta, from 

 whence they were brought hither." 



In the part of this work dealing with toy spaniels I have expressed 

 myself respecting the looseness and inaccuracy of Caius, and the habit he 

 evidences of taking things at secondhand, and his tendency to moralise 



