Good Coats. 155 



inclination to be curly — the crispest hair on the human being 

 has usually a tendency to be so, and the straight hair is the 

 softer and finer. There should be some amount of longish 

 hair on the legs, too, right down to the toes, and when 

 there is a deficiency in the coat in this respect, one may be 

 pretty certain that some crossed strain is in the blood of 

 the animal so handicapped. As a fact, there is scarcely a 

 wire-haired terrier at the present day without even a con- 

 siderable dash of this smooth strain in hair. Those most 

 successful on the show bench have been seen of late 

 specially bred in this way as well by some from the tabu- 

 lated pedigree of Mr. Raper's Go-Bang, which is given on 

 another page. This dog I have taken as a fair example, 

 as he is generally considered the best and most successful 

 of our wire-haired terriers. He was sold for the unprece- 

 dented price of 500/. 



In attempting to produce straight coats, modern breeders 

 have gone to extremes, and, according to their nature, too 

 often produced fine ones, of a texture like silk almost ; 

 these are, again, likely to be thin, and quite inadequate in 

 keeping out the water and cold. Too seldom do we see a 

 wire-haired terrier with so close and hard a jacket as some 

 of the otter hounds possess. Straighter they may be, but 

 as hard seldom ; and what, indeed, is the straightness but 

 a useless beauty mark ? An old bitch of Mr. A. Maxwell's, 

 Tennis, had in her day one of the best of coats, but for 

 modern ideas there was too much of it. Her chest and 

 neck were well protected, and it goes without saying that 

 the smooth cross has in a degree done away with the hair 

 about the neck and throat, which nature gave the dog to 

 protect its most vulnerable part. Indeed if there was the 

 protective coat here now, the " modern showman " would 



