150 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



telling us that these dogs were called Spaniels because they 

 came from Spain. 



The following distinct breeds or varieties are recognised by 

 the Kennel Club: (i) Irish Water Spaniels; (2) Water 

 Spaniels other than Irish ; (3) Clumber Spaniels ; (4) Sussex 

 Spaniels ; (5) Field Spaniels ; (6) English Springers ; (7) 

 Welsh Springers ; (8) Cocker Spaniels. Each of these 

 varieties differs considerably from the others, and each has 

 its own special advocates and admirers, as well as its own 

 particular sphere of work for which it is best fitted, though 

 almost any Spaniel can be made into a general utility dog, 

 which is, perhaps, one of the main reasons for the popularity 

 of the breed. 



II. THE IRISH WATER SPANIEL. There is only one breed 

 of dog known in these days by the name of Irish Water Spaniel, 

 but if we are to trust the writers of no longer ago than half 

 a century there were at one time two, if not three, breeds of 

 Water Spaniels peculiar to the Emerald Isle. These were the 

 Tweed Water Spaniel, the Northern Water Spaniel, and the 

 Southern Water Spaniel, the last of these being the progenitors 

 of our modern strains. 



The history of the Irish Water Spaniel is in many ways a 

 very extraordinary one. According to the claim of Mr. 

 Justin McCarthy, it originated entirely in his kennels, and 

 this claim has never been seriously disputed by the subsequent 

 owners and breeders of these dogs. It seems improbable that 

 Mr. Justin McCarthy can actually have originated or manu- 

 factured a breed possessing so many extremely marked 

 differences and divergences of type as the Irish Water Spaniel ; 

 but what he probably did was to rescue an old and moribund 

 breed from impending extinction, and so improve it by 

 judicious breeding, and cross-breeding as to give it a new 

 lease of life, and permanently fix its salient points and charac- 

 teristics. However that may be, little seems to have been 

 known of the breed before he took it in hand, and it is very 

 certain that nearly every Irish Water Spaniel seen for the last 



