32O The Dog Book 



probably being due to selection more than to a cross with the setter, 

 though that may have been resorted to by some who cared only for getting 

 a suitable working dog, and by others with the object of getting a better- 

 looking dog. The late Mr. Shirley, chairman of the English Kennel Club, 

 was a great fancier of the wavy-coated retriever, as it was then called, and 

 he used no setter blood. Lieut.-Col. Cornewall Legh is another who is 

 credited with sticking closely to the old Labrador stock, and the improve- 

 ment he has made has been by selection. 



It can be readily understood that in a dog called upon to retrieve 

 the main thing before the establishment of the breed was to secure a thor- 

 oughly good dog for the work, and we read in "Craven's" "Advice to Young 

 Sportsmen" that the best retriever he ever owned was a bull terrier; but, 

 as a later writer pertinently remarked, that is no reason why we should 

 take bull terriers for retrievers on account of the exceptional fad of this 

 particular dog. One of Cooper's good paintings is of " Brush, a Celebrated 

 Retriever." This was painted fifty years ago, though the loose engraving 

 we have bears 1868 as the date of publication. Brush was apparently 

 black, with prominent white frill and white on the feet, extending on one 

 fore leg about the fetlock. The head is smooth, with body coat like a 

 rough setter. A very intelligent-looking dog of no definite breed; one 

 might almost say a half-bred setter and collie. 



The curly coated retriever is one we feel assured might well be intro- 

 duced here for duck shooting, the crisply curled coat being very water 

 resisting, and as there is less of it than in the Irish water spaniel he should 

 be a preferable companion on his return from the water, while in compari- 

 son with the Chesapeake Bay dog he certainly is much the better-looking. 

 Lee gives the curlies a bad name on account of hard mouths, but the coat 

 can hardly cause that, and there ought to be good retrievers among them. 

 Whether it is that, or whether the smooths are the more attractive and have thus 

 crowded out the curlies, we are not in a position to say, but we do know that we 

 have quite a liking for a good curly coated retriever, and would much like 

 to see them taken up here by the duck shooters who desire a good-looking dog. 



We remember seeing quite a number of brown or liver curly-coated 

 dogs, but they seem to have gone out of fashion, or have been bred out in 

 the desire for blacks as the preferable show colour. 



Mr. H. Reginald Cooke, of Davenport, Bridgenorth, England, who 

 kindly sent us a photograph of one of his champions and photographs of 



