EARLY NOTICES OF WATER SPANIELS. 455 



falling, he rushes with the most incredible fortitude and impetuosity, through and over every 

 obstacle that can present itself, to the execution of his office. P"or whether the fowl falls 

 dead amidst the infinite clefts, recesses, and vacuities of the rock, or, being only winged or 

 wounded, and falling in the water, it is the distinguished property of this dog never to recede 

 till he has performed his task, and brought the object of his mission to the hand of his 

 master. In favourable weather, and on fortunate clays, the quick succession of shots and rapid 

 destruction of birds soon form an accumulation which bids fair to fill the huts." 



Although further on in his work Taplin has an article upon the Water Spaniel, he gives 

 precisely the same description of it as he did in an earlier portion of his work of the Water- 

 dog. The illustrations, however, as our readers will observe, are widely different, and we 

 give both so that they can compare them for themselves. His descriptions of the two 

 breeds being so similar, there is very little worth referring to in Taplin's article on the Water 

 Spaniel, though the reference he makes in the following passage to the dog's appearance in 

 our opinion refers far more probably to the Water-dog than Water Spaniel as they are depicted 

 in his book. He alludes to "the rough and awkward appearance," as well as to the "strong 

 and unpleasant effluvia issuing from the shaggy coat," of the Water Spaniel. Now, there is 

 nothing that we can sec in the illustration which he gives of the Water Spaniel that would 

 lead one to think that the breed was awkward in appearance, but the illustration of the 

 Water-dog would certainly have that effect. It is, therefore, we think, more than likely that 

 Taplin was a little confused in his ideas upon these breeds, as the fact that he gives a different 

 illustration but an identical description for each breed shows he was to a certain extent at 

 fault in his endeavour to dissociate the Water-dog from the Water Spaniel. We cannot 

 help being of the opinion that at the time John Scott wrote there were two varieties of 

 Water-dog, both of which were descended from the old variety alluded to under different 

 titles by Caius and Nicholas Cox, and that these subsequently were united into one variety 

 called the Water Spaniel. There can be to our own mind no sort of a doubt that the 

 Water-dog or Water Spaniel was largely crossed with other breeds, and as the Land Spaniel 

 or Springer was the most popular of all sporting dogs about the commencement, he was 

 naturally selected for the cross. 



John Scott strikes out with some original ideas of his own in the " Sportsman's Reposi- 

 tory," for he says in his work : 



" We have two varieties of the Water-dog, the one so called, the other the Water Spaniel. 

 We cannot give consent to the common conjectures on the origin of these two divisions of 

 the species. It has been supposed that the Water-dog has been obtained in this country 

 from a cross between the Arctic, or Greenland dog, and an English- bitch, and the Water 

 Spaniel from the union of the Springer, or Land Spaniel, and the Water-dog. We feel 

 more inclined to the conjecture that both these varieties are of far longer standing than the 

 above account would seem to indicate, and that we imported our Water as well as our Land 

 Spaniels from the southern part of Europe, and our Water-dogs from the northern. It is 

 certain that in Spain and Italy they have ever had distinct varieties of the Land and Water 

 Spaniel, and also that on the opposite and more northern parts of the Continent they have 

 Water-dogs like ours, which fn truth have a foreign appearance." 



What object the wrtcr had in view is hard to discover, beyond showing that, in his opinion. 



