468 Modem Dogs. 



sleeping away the dreary hours on the show 

 benches. 



Of late years so much attention has been given 

 these black spaniels that there are men who have 

 actually attained a form of celebrity on account 

 of the skill they display in obtaining a perfectly flat 

 coat and a shining one. This a good specimen 

 must have. Then his ears cannot be too long, well 

 clothed with hair and fringed at the tips ; his head, 

 too, may be an exaggeration, long, with not the 

 most peculiarly pleasing spaniel expression and eye 

 that one would like to see. Some of our heavier 

 black spaniels have enormous heads, square and 

 untypical, with eyes displaying a haw that would not 

 be out of place in a bloodhound. I need scarcely 

 say that when dogs of this kind are given prizes, the 

 judges who make such awards are wrong. 



Length of body, shortness of leg, and enormous 

 bone are again produced to an exaggeration ; crooked 

 forelegs have followed, and the black spaniel, once 

 perhaps a useful and active animal, has now fallen 

 into the heavy, slow ranks of the Clumber, but by 

 no means so interesting a creature, and may be 

 taken as a sound example of what can be done in 

 the matter of breeding " for show points." 



Now, I have always taken my line as to what 

 a black spaniel should be from that simply charming 



