Large Ears. 23 



champion a well-known admirer of the variety was wont 

 to declare, " she had ears like a blacksmith's apron." 



An excessive size of the aural appendages is not an 

 attribute of the terrier proper, any more than are the 

 hound markings. I am inclined to believe that if ever 

 there was an original terrier he had semi-prick ears, which, 

 standing quite erect at times, were, when their owner 

 came to be at work, thrown back into the hair of the 

 neck, which for purposes of protection Nature provided 

 stronger and more profuse there than on any other part 

 of the body. To a great extent fancy has outdone nature 

 in this respect, and few of the terriers seen winning on 

 the benches now have that strong, muscular, hair-protected 

 neck required by thorough workers. Smartness and quality 

 are sought. In nine cases out of ten when a dog-show 

 man possesses a fox terrier with a greater profusion of 

 hair on the neck than elsewhere on the body, it will be 

 taken off in order that a neatness and cleanness there 

 would better attract the admiration of the judge. 



Still there are some modern strains of the fox terrier 

 which are not anything like so smooth in their jackets as 

 they might be ; longish and open in coat, and with sterns 

 which would not make bad illustrations as bottle brushes. 

 These longish coats were mostly introduced immediately 

 following a period when such were wrong in an opposite 

 direction, being almost glossy and anything but weather- 

 resisting. It was ever thus, and will, I suppose, always 

 be the custom to run to extremes, especially so far as the 

 general public are concerned. Thus a reason became 

 apparent for the variety in type seen now as compared 

 with that which was the case in our terriers forty or fifty 

 years ago. 



