84 Modern Dogs. 



but I do not think much combing is advisable. Nor 

 is the slight brown tinge (not visible in all lights) ugly, 

 nor inconsistent with the purity of breed, though it 

 would be better absent." A writer much earlier 

 than this, namely, in 1819, says that twenty or thirty 

 years ago the Newfoundlands were " large, rough- 

 coated, curly-haired, liver and white dogs." Occa- 

 sionally we now see a Newfoundland dog entirely 

 liver or brown in colour, and doubtless this hue is in- 

 herited much in the same way as the brown tinge, 

 and therefore I quite agree with the description of 

 the specialist club, which does not penalise that tint. 

 The brown or brown and white dogs it does not 

 acknowledge, and naturally gives preference to 

 those specimens entirely black. 



In the early days of the canine exhibitions, prizes 

 were often given to black and white dogs when 

 shown in the same division as the blacks, but the 

 latter, when equal in excellence to their more 

 variegated cousins, in nine cases out of ten beat 

 them, so breeders gave their attention mostly to the 

 whole-coloured variety, which causes it to be the 

 popular one of the present day. The first dog show 

 held at Birmingham, in 1859, was entirely confined 

 to sporting dogs, but the succeeding one in 1860 in- 

 cluded a class for Newfoundlands, and this induced 

 an entry of only half a dozen, a bitch of Lieut.- 



