430 British Dogs. 



that these and other inquiries should have created in Malta a supply of a 

 factitious article to meet an unintelligible demand. 



Whether the dog we now call a Maltese terrier be a descendant more 

 or less pure from the breed Strabo wrote of, it is now impossible to say ; 

 but there is one thing of more practical value, and that is that those 

 who affect the breed nowadays, at least know the sort of dog they refer 

 to by that name, and in the minds of breeders, judges, critics, and 

 fanciers, there should be a clearness of meaning as to the points which, 

 aggregated, make up the dog, from which there should be no getting 

 away. 



From this point of view it is lamentable to think that " Stonehenge," 

 who has been accepted as an oracle on such subjects, should have given 

 the weight of his name to the contradictions and absurdities which mark 

 his several articles on this breed. 



In the 1872 edition of his " Dogs of the British Islands " he discards 

 the Manilla dog, and gives his readers an engraving of Mandeville's 

 Fido, then at the zenith of his fame, and states the dog's height to be 

 llin. at shoulder to a weight of 6lb., whilst from tip to tip of ears the 

 dog is said to have measured 21in. These figures condemn themselves. 

 In this edition we are told that the coat " should be long, and fall in 

 ringlets, the longer the better." In the 1878 edition it is said " there is 

 a slight wave but no absolute curl." In the six years, I suppose, the 

 tyre women who dress these toys had succeeded in ironing the ringlets out. 



" The eyes," he says, " should not show the weeping corner incidental 

 to the King Charles and Blenheim." Enquiry among exhibitors would 

 have shown him that " Weeping " is one of the most tiresome things 

 exhibitors of Maltese have to contend against. The watery discharge 

 stains the white hair a dirty red. 



"The ears," we are told, "are long," which is not the case; the 

 skin, or flap of the ear is short, but the hair upon it is long. Further, 

 " the roof of the mouth is black." I seldom look into a dog's mouth, 

 except to examine his teeth, and consider that, as a proof of quality or 

 purity of breed, we might as well consider the colour of his liver. 

 Finally, "Stonehenge" objects to this dog being called a terrier, because 

 "it has none of the properties of the terrier tribe," and that "it 

 approaches very closely to the spaniel." 



Eather strange, this, from the same pen that wrote, " This beautiful 



