THE DOG FAMILY—SPANIELS. 



227 



verse: I mean Scheitlin's description of Barry. He 

 says: "The most excellent Dog of which we have 

 knowledge is not the one which woke the guard- 

 ians of the acropolis of Corinth; it is not Becerillo, 

 which tore many hundreds pf poor Indians to pieces; 

 not the Dog of the hangman, which, at his master's 

 command, guided a stranger safely though a great, 

 gloomy forest; not Dryden's Dracon, which rushed 

 at four highwaymen, killed some of them and saved 

 his master's life; not that one which ran home to 

 give information that the miller's little Girl had 

 fallen into the river; not the Dog in Warsaw which 

 jumped down from the bridge and saved a little 

 Girl's life; not Aubry's Dog, which seized his mas- 

 ter's murderer and would have torn him to pieces 

 before the king; not Benvenuto Cellini's Dog, which 

 woke the goldsmiths when the gems were about to 

 be stolen; but Barry, the saint on the St. Bernard! 

 Barry, the highest among Dogs, the highest among 

 all animals ! You were a great human Dog, Barry, 

 with a warm heart for the suffering. You saved the 

 lives of more than forty people. With your little 

 basket and a flask of sweet, strengthening wine on 

 your neck, you left the monastery day after day, in 

 snow-storms and in thaw, to 

 search for people buried by the 

 drifting snow or by an ava- 

 lanche, to dig them out, or, if 

 you could not do so, to run 

 home and bring the monks to 

 help you with their spades. You 

 were the reverse of a grave- 

 digger, for you resurrected peo- 

 ple who were buried. Like a 

 sympathizing human being, you 

 must have been able to show 

 your compassion, or else that 

 little Boy whom you dug out of 

 the snow would not have dared 

 to sit on your back and suffer 

 himself to be carried to the hos- 

 pitable monastery! When you 

 arrived with him, you pulled the 

 bell, to give the precious found- 

 ling into the care of the merciful 

 monks, and then you hurried 

 back to resume your search! 

 Every success made you more 

 joyful, more compassionate. 

 That is the blessing of a noble 

 deed: that it must go on pro- 

 ducing more nobility ! " 



Tschudi says that excellent 

 Dogs are also kept on the St. 

 Gotthard, Simplon, Grimsel and 

 Furka passes and in all other 

 Alpine hospices. These Dogs 

 are possessed of extremely keen 



powers of scent where human beings are concerned, 

 and are usually Newfoundland Dogs or cross-breeds 

 with Newfoundland blood. The inhabitants of all 

 the hospices agree that these Dogs know the ap- 

 proach of a storm an hour beforehand, especially in 

 winter, and show it by their restlessness. But no 

 other Dog has become as celebrated as Barry. 

 The Poodle, His The well-known Poodle (Canis famil- 

 Character- iaris extrarius gcmiinus) is also a Span- 

 istics and Traits. j e [ it does not seem necessary to 

 describe him, as he is so universally known. The 

 stout body thickly clothed in long, woolly, shaggy 

 hair, forming actual curls on some parts of the body, 



and the long, wide ears, distinguish him from his 

 relatives. A Poodle, to be accounted a fine speci- 

 men of the breed, must be all black or all white, or 

 at most may have a white patch on the forehead and 

 breast, if the rest of the body is black. 



The Poodle shows his close relations to the Span- 

 iels by his fondness for water. He not only swims 

 well, but likes to swim, and he may be trained for 

 hunting. He is, however, more fit to be a com- 

 panion to Man, and such he is to a greater extent 

 than any other animal. To describe him I take the 

 words of Scheitlin, who is one of the warmest ad- 

 mirers of this Dog: " The Poodle has the best built 

 body among Dogs. He has the most beautiful head, 

 the most symmetrical body, the finest shape, a full, 

 wide chest and well-formed limbs; is neither large 

 nor small, long nor short, and has the most dignified 

 bearing. Physically he is well adapted for all exer- 

 cises. He learns to dance of his own accord, for 

 his half-human nature incites him to stand on two 

 legs and walk erect. He soon sees that he can do 

 it, and does so, whenever he feels like it. His sense 

 of taste is delicate; he discriminates between two 

 different kinds of food and is fastidious. His scent 



THE POODLE. Everybody is acquainted with the Poodles. Here they are shown, one white, one 



black, but both pert, intelligent, shaggy and curly-coated, although the white Dog has been partly shorn. 

 The Poodle is a very sagacious animal, capable of great usefulness if it is not spoiled in training, and a 

 very amusing companion. (Canis familiaris extrarius genuinus.) 



is celebrated. If he is given a shoe or any other 

 object belonging to a lost child, he can retain the 

 memory of the smell and, by means of it, find the 

 child. He seldom errs, for his nose is his chief organ 

 of sense. His hearing is excellent. He knows a 

 voice from afar, distinguishes its inflections, recog- 

 nizes the difference between large and small bells, 

 and knows the sound of the footsteps of the differ- 

 ent people living in the house. Of his censes, only 

 that of sight is defective: he does not see well and 

 recognizes his master by sight only when quite near, 

 but what he lacks in this respect is more than made 

 up by the great acuteness of his other senses. 



