THE MINIATURE BREEDS 307 



roughly they are a long flat head, wide between the eyes and 

 tapering to the nose, which should be black. Ears erect and 

 bat-like, straight legs and rather distinctive feet ; some 

 people say these are cat-like. 



Toy Bull-terriers ought to have an alert, gay appearance, 

 coupled with refinement, which requires a nice whip tail. 

 The best colour is pure white. A brindle spot is not amiss, 

 and even a brindle dog is admissible, but black marks are 

 wrong. The coat ought to be close and stiff to the touch. 

 Toy Bull-terriers are not delicate as a rule. They require 

 warmth and plenty of exercise in all weathers. 



The most elegant, graceful, and refined of all dogs are the 

 tiny Italian Greyhounds. Their exquisitely delicate lines, 

 their supple movements and beautiful attitudes, their soft 

 large eyes, their charming colouring, their gentle and loving 

 nature, and their scrupulous cleanliness of habit all these 

 qualities justify the admiration bestowed upon them as draw- 

 ing-room pets. They are fragile, it is true fragile as egg- 

 shell china not to be handled roughly. But their constitu- 

 tion is not necessarily delicate, and many have been known to 

 live to extreme old age. Miss Mackenzie's Jack, one of the 

 most beautiful of the breed ever known, lived to see his 

 seventeenth birthday, and even then was strong and healthy. 

 Their fragility is more apparent than real, and if they are not 

 exposed to cold or damp, they require less pampering than 

 they usually receive. This cause has been a frequent source 

 of constitutional weakness, and it was deplorably a fault in 

 the Italian Greyhounds of half a century ago. 



One cannot be quite certain as to the derivation of the Italian 

 Greyhound. Its physical appearance naturally suggests a 

 descent from the Gazehound of the ancients, with the added 

 conjecture that it was purposely dwarfed for the convenience 

 of being nursed in the lap. Greek art presents many examples 

 of a very small dog of Greyhound type, and there is a pro- 

 bability that the diminutive breed was a familiar ornament 



