NOTED MASTIFFS. 2O7 



Mr. Field's Old King was nearly of this colour, and was 

 also one of the most perfect all round specimens of the 

 British mastiff I have met with ; Mr. Beaufoy's Beau was 

 also of the same colour, and was one of the very best speci- 

 mens that has been before the public of late years, inheriting 

 much of the King or Quaker type through his dam; Wolf, by 

 Bill George's Tiger, was of the same colour, and had a 

 remarkably fine head, but was somewhat coarse, and also 

 deficient in muscular power ; his daughter, Mr. Hanbury's 

 Phillis, inherited her sire's head, colour, and type generally. 



It may be urged that if preference may be given to any 

 colour, the fancy have an equal right to say the mastiff should 

 have the level jaw and long head ; that the undershot jaw is 

 merely a monstrocity both in the bulldog and mastiff, a little 

 consideration however will show the merest tyro the incor- 

 rectness of any such argument, which may be seen by 

 analogy. In the lop-eared rabbit for instance, the fancy have 

 a right to select any particular colour and marking, and the 

 lop ears ma}' be a monstrocity, or an adaptation on the part 

 of nature to fit the animal for its conditions of existence; but 

 let anyone argue the lop ears should be bred out, and a 

 normal small ear take its place, what would be the result ? 

 the breed would no longer be the lop-eared variety ; the same 

 with the mastiff, a baiting dog, with the characteristic short 

 muzzle, and undershot jaw of its trade or use, which if bred 

 out or allowed to degenerate into other types, the breed 

 would become no longer the mastiff, as they approached nearer 

 in type to their boarhound, bloodhound, or Alpine sheepdog 

 ancestry ; foul crosses which have been introduced to the 

 detriment of the true type. Vast dogs long on the legs, some- 

 what light in bone for their size, are not in reality mastiffs, 

 whatever their owners may think. 



