41 8 Modern Dogs. 



dog referred to, much resembles the Irish water 

 spaniels of the present period. Take, for instance, 

 the top-knot and coat, the length of back, the 

 length from hip to hock, the length of face, 

 and one must, in my humble opinion, notice the 

 similarity. 



" The Irish water spaniel of to-day is looked 

 after by two clubs, one in England and the other in 

 Ireland. The former club has this year revised 

 its standard of points, but the revision, in my 

 opinion, is not an improvement on the old standard. 

 Take the description of head, for instance, which is 

 as follows : ' Capacious skull, rather raised on dome 

 and fairly wide, showing large brain capacity. The 

 dome appears higher than it really is, being sur- 

 mounted by the crest or top-knot.' 



" Not a word is said about the ' face,' the length 

 of face the very point in the breed that such an 

 acknowledged authority as 'Stonehenge' goes out of 

 his way to describe as 'very peculiar.' The face, in 

 my opinion, and in the opinion of many old breeders, 

 is a most remarkable and important feature of the 

 breed. Take the top-knot again, another charac- 

 teristic point of the breed, and it is very badly 

 handled by the Club. Nothing like sufficient im- 

 portance is given to it. In the remarks in the 

 descriptive particulars of the coat we read as 



