ID 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



English Masti 



combats between mastiffs and 

 bears or bulls. These aren:i 

 contests were probabl) 

 fought by a cross breed 

 of mastiffs and Irish 

 wolfhounds ; very cer- 

 tainly they did not 

 resemble the modern 

 mastiff. The latter 

 now stands fro m 

 twenty-five to twenty 

 eight inches high from 

 ground to shoulder, and 

 has a weight of one hundred 

 to two hundred pounds. The 

 muzzle and ears are black, and the 

 dog himself is the color of a roe- 

 buck or deer. Sometimes, also. 



the whole body is of a much darker 

 shade. 



TIic bulldog. The bulldog, smaller 

 than the mastiff, is related to him and 

 to his combative ancestors. These 

 dogs seem much more furious than 

 they really are. To what caprices have 

 they not been subjected in view of ex- 

 hibitions ! At one time breeders even 

 went so far that little was wanting to 

 make their bodies and paws so eccen- 

 tric in form that they could hardly 

 drag themselves about. Happily, in 

 the present day, this danger is averted, 

 to the great joy of all true sportsmen, 

 and the bulldog now stands on his own 

 four paws. It is doubtful, however, 

 whether the prize winners of to-day 

 would issue triumphantly from the 

 arena after such bullfights as those 

 in which the seventeenth-century 

 mastiffs took such a prominent part. 

 Henri II, Queen Mary, and Princess 

 Elizabeth of England encouraged 

 those combats, but in 1689 we find 

 them forbidden at Amsterdam, dogs 

 trained for such fights being called 

 "bear biters," a name still to be heard 

 on the banks of the Amstel. The bull- 

 dog should be small, massive, and 

 rather thickset, especially 

 about the head ; the muzzle 

 should be thrust forward 

 and raised impudently, 

 the under jaw ad- 

 vanced beyond the 

 upper, the lips hang- 

 ing heavily on each 

 side of the chops, the 

 nose broad, and the 

 teeth large and often 

 visible, — all of which 

 contribute to his ungra- 

 cious appearance. The 

 color is rather \'ariable. A 

 bulldog may be brindled with 

 Champion Bulldog black, or may be all white, spotted 



PhotoJ. T.Newman, lierkhampstead with white, rcd-broWn, tawny 



