THE SPANIELS 317 



head and expression or character of Nellie or Flirt, two Black 

 Spaniels bred by Mr. Bullock, and exhibited so successfully about 

 a dozen or fifteen years since, I certainly could not do so. In fact, 

 we have, in our black-coloured Springer, lost the beautiful head of 

 old, and it is a question with me if the gentlemen who have only 

 taken an interest in Spaniels, say, during the last four or five years 

 will ever know what it was like ; for to explain (so as to be perfectly 

 understood) the heads of such Spaniels, for instance, as the two 

 mentioned is an impossibility. This change in the head of our 

 Black Springer, in my opinion, has been brought about to a very 

 great extent by the using to our Black Spaniel bitches, directly and 

 indirectly, such grand dogs as the Sussex Champions Buckingham 

 (4,400) Batchelor (6,287), Rover III. (5,249), and others. The loss 

 of head by this cause has, however, improved other important points 

 in the variety of Spaniel in question> notably bone and straightness 

 of coat, and perhaps, to a certain extent, shortness of leg. In body, 

 speaking generally, I do not think our Black Spaniels are so good 

 as twelve or fifteen years ago. We have so many now that are 

 tucked or cut up under the loin, without a good middle, which is a 

 bad fault in a Spaniel. In the action or carriage of the stern we 

 have not improved. I, however, do not think we have deteriorated 

 in this respect much, as from some cause or the other twelve years 

 ago down to the present date certainly 50 per cent, of our exhibition 

 Spaniels have not the correct carriage or action of stern. It is a 

 great pity, for a Spaniel with his tail put on and stuck up like a Fox- 

 terrier's, however good in all other respects, is a bad one, the 

 beautiful outline of the Spaniel being simply destroyed by this 

 fault. It is a fact, I believe, that more Black are registered than 

 any other variety of Spaniel. This being so, it is somewhat strange 

 how few good ones are produced : and to-day, judging from the 

 results of recent exhibitions, Solus, a dog whelped in July, 1880, is 

 still at the top of the tree in the dogs, and Squaw, a bitch whelped 

 in April, 1879, is the best in the bitches ; and if these two old 

 Spaniels can be kept in form, they look like still winning. Solus 

 improved somewhat late in life, and he has done and looked 

 better in Mr. Royle's kennel than in that of his breeder, Mr. 

 Schofield. At Warwick this year (1887) Mr. Jacobs brought out 

 a very nice young dog, Newton Abbot Shah, whelped February, 

 1886, and I think I may mention my own young dog, Gipping 

 Sam, whelped March, 1886. These two young dogs are certainly 

 above the average, and I have seen nothing from Mr. Jacobs's 

 kennel so good since the Crystal Palace Show in June, 1870, when 

 that gentleman brought out Kaffir (10,452) and Zulu (10,459). 

 Gipping Sam is, I think, the best large Black Spaniel I ever bred, 

 and in the opinion of more than one of our very oldest Spaniel 

 breeders and exhibitors Sam is the best Black Spaniel dog seen for 



