56 THE DOOS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



" It might in practice be found advisable that the negative marks should never 

 exceed the possible positive marks in number; or, again, that an animal notably 

 deficient in any one special characteristic of his breed would be considered 

 disqualified. 



" These are, however, minor points ; but I hope and think that the principle 

 I suggest, unless it has already been thought of, may be found practical and 

 useful. " MASTIFF." 



" April 3, 1869. 



This suggestion removed the only objection in my mind to the plan of judging 

 by points, and with its aid every animal shown, whether horse, dog, poultry, bird, 

 or pigeon, should, I think, be judged. I have endeavoured to persuade the 

 managers of the various shows to adopt this amended system, but hitherto without 

 success. Still, as it is never too late to mend, and as I am convinced that, sooner 

 or later, it must come into use, I give a specimen table of an open class of large 

 pointers, with the points filled up of half a dozen selected specimens, between which 

 it is obvious to the judges the three prizes given must rest. Of course it would 

 be an enormous sacrifice of time to set down the points of the whole of the above 

 class, but an experienced judge can readily point out four, five, or six, as the case 

 may be, all of which may be carefully "pointed," as is shown in the following 

 table, which is supposed to be a copy of a page of the judge's book filled up. In 

 this way I believe that time may be saved rather than wasted, as I have found that 

 the fixing on the numerical value of the several points is much easier than the 

 judging two nearly equal dogs on their general merits. 



There is a very general impression in the minds of judges that the method 

 here advocated would be a great waste of time ; and on one occasion, at the recent 

 show of bull dogs by the club specially formed for their improvement, the judge 

 thought it necessary to retire for several hours in order to fill up his book. Now, 

 this proceeding was simply absurd, because the only thing which could possibly 

 be done in the absence of the dog was to cast up the score made when examining 

 them, and that process could not occupy more than a few minutes. The fact, 

 I have no doubt, was that he was nervous at having to define his opinions on the 

 several points; but a really well informed judge ought surely to have no such 

 feeling. Having myself tried the experiment several times, I find that I can easily 

 set down the points of six dogs, previously selected, in half an hour, exercising 

 the greatest care, whilst in most cases I can do it in half that time; and I am 

 quite sure that in all important classes fully half an hour is occupied by the 

 usual rule of thumb process. 



The following tabular form is suggested as the most convenient. The figures 

 in italics are those supposed to be filled in by the judge. 



