A Good Character. 11 



This supposititious quality, so natural to the cat race, when 

 applied to the dog I consider a mere fable ; but it has led 

 to a strange error later naturalists having, from Rail's 

 description, concluded that a variety of the dog possessing 

 most extraordinary properties had become extinct. 

 Sydenham Edwards continues, ''the most distinct varieties 

 are the crooked-legged and straight-legged ; their colours 

 generally black, with tanned legs and muzzles, a spot of 

 the same colour over each eye ; though they are sometimes 

 reddish fallow or white and pied. The white kind have 

 been in request of late years. The ears are short, some 

 erect, others pendulous ; these and part of the tail are 

 usually cut off ; some rough and some smooth-haired. 

 Many sportsmen prefer the wire-haired, supposing them to 

 be the harder biters, but this is not always the case. . . . 

 The terrier is querulous, fretful, and irascible, high spirited 

 and alert when brought into action ; if he has not unsubdued 

 perseverance like the bull-dog, he has rapidity of attack, 

 managed with art and sustained with spirit ; it is not what 

 he will bear, but what he will inflict. His action protects 

 himself, and his bite carries death to his opponents ; he 

 dashes into the hole of the fox, drives him from his 

 recesses, or tears him to pieces in his stronghold ; and he 

 forces the reluctant, stubborn badger into light. As his 

 courage is great, so is his genius extensive ; he will trace 

 with the foxhounds, hunt with the beagle, find for the 

 greyhound, or beat with the spaniel. Of wild cats, 

 martens, polecats, weasels, and rats, he is the vigilant and 

 determined enemy ; he drives the otter from the rocky 

 clefts on the banks of the rivers, nor declines the combat 

 in a new element." Here is an excellent character, and 

 no wonder with such a one the fox terrier was, even in 



