142 The Fox Terrier. 



ranee. Still, these puppies, excepting that they had 

 drop ears — in one case a wire-haired coat — were as far 

 removed from what a fox terrier should be as possible. 

 " Ah ! " said their owner, on being remonstrated with for 

 showing such things, " they are but puppies, and will drop 

 down, thicken, and furnish in due course." Needless is it 

 for me to say that in no case did they get the cards of 

 honour which the exhibitor desired. I am pleased to 

 find " fox terrier" coursing on the decadence, and just 

 now it appears to be a so-called pastime which is just 

 lingering along until it comes to an end by death from 

 inanition. 



An ordinary fox terrier has not pace to compete success- 

 fully with a rabbit on its own ground, nor until the present 

 time has any attempt been made to breed him for speed 

 alone. Daniel, writing nearly a century ago, said speed was 

 not one of the peculiar properties of the terrier, although it 

 possesses the power of keeping up the same pace for a 

 considerable distance. He mentions a match which took 

 place in 1794, when a very small terrier, for a very big 

 wager, ran a mile in two minutes, and six miles in eighteen 

 minutes. This is rather an extraordinary performance, and 

 I do not know that there is a fox terrier to-day that can at 

 all equal it. Anyhow, there are the little " snap-dogs " or 

 " whippets" (and Daniel's dog might have been one of 

 them), which can course rabbits, and run races better than 

 any fox terrier. For such purposes they are kept in many 

 parts of the north of England and elsewhere. Those who 

 wish for rabbit coursing I would recommend to keep two or 

 three of them, for what is worth doing at all is worth doing 

 well, and I am pretty certain that even a moderate "snap 

 dog" or "whippet" would give the best fox terrier ever 



