The Dalmatian. 195 



with a snarling neighbour cleanly in his habits, 

 and thoroughly tractable. Once it was the custom 

 to cut his ears off, happily this piece of barbarity 

 has long since been discontinued. Bewick, the 

 eminent wood engraver, gives us a Dalmatian so 

 mutilated, but in Reinagle's drawing in the " Sports- 

 man's Cabinet " it is difficult to tell, owing to the 

 position of the dog he is galloping whether the 

 ears are on or off. I fancy they are off. 



The latter illustration is a most typical one in 

 the shape and form of the dog, but his spots might 

 be more distinct on the body ; on the stern his 

 markings are about perfect, and far ahead of any- 

 thing I know of at the present day. Reinagle's 

 dog is, however, darkly marked on the body, and 

 when this is the case, he is likely to be so on the 

 stern likewise, the difficulty being to obtain a 

 perfectly marked dog with a proportionate number 

 of spots on his caudal appendage. 



As to the modern Dalmatian, he is sometimes 

 marked with brown or liver spots on the white 

 ground, and these markings, when clearly defined, 

 are quite as good as the pure black ones on a 

 white ground. Again, he is frequently seen with 

 what is called " china " or " wall eyes," a peculiarity 

 frequently appearing in all varieties of the dog that 

 have much white about them, and where the 



O 2 



