The Black Pug. 275 



unknown and the type had nothing of the Jack 

 Spratt about it. 



This dog, Nigger, now better known as Surprise, 

 attracted, however, the attention of the judge, and its 

 black coat, tightly curled tail, coupled with a smart 

 carriage, quite overbalanced his somewhat long, 

 terrier-like face, and placed him first in the open 

 class for dogs, in which there were twelve entries. 

 The other dogs shown, the true lineal descendants 

 of Jack Spratt were so shy as to render themselves 

 ridiculously unassertive, their tails dangling under 

 their bodies, so they were quite out of the running. 

 Nap II., however, was consoled by winning the first 

 stud medal ever given to a black pug, he being 

 awarded one of the two bronze medals offered by 

 the Crystal Palace for stud pugs. These two well- 

 filled classes of odd-looking, but remarkably hand- 

 some, jet black pugs created considerable attention, 

 and since that time classes have been provided for 

 them at our leading exhibitions. Such is all that 

 is known as to the history of the black pug. 



I have already alluded to their breeding true to 

 type, and Miss " Mortivals " says that " two of the 

 original pair, Nap II. and Black Bess, never 

 produced any puppies but black ones, which had 

 usually a small white mark on their chests, and 

 some of them had white on their toes, others on 



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