106 THE DOGS OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 



at Birmingham and elsewhere. In this year Wyndham and Jet again changed 

 hands, Mr. Gorse, who had long before been engaged in breeding retrievers, 

 becoming their new master, and succeeding in getting first at Birmingham with Jet 

 in the curly-coated class, but, curiously enough, being only second in the wavy- 

 coated class to another Wyndham, belonging to Mr. Meyrick, of Pembroke, but bred 

 by Capt. Sparling. The two Wyndhams were much of the same type, nearly or 

 quite pure Labrador, and were about equally successful on the show bench. For 

 some years Mr. Gorse carried all before him in the curly-coated classes of the 

 various shows with Jet and his son Jet II. ; but in 1872 Mr. Morris, of Rochdale, 

 brought out True, a magnificent specimen of the breed, with which he has since that 

 time swept the board in the champion classes, his grand bitch X L being almost 

 equally successful in her own class. From the year 1870, when Meyrick's 

 Wyndham only took a third prize at Birmingham, Mr. Gorse, Mr. Shirley, and the 

 various owners of Morley have shared the prizes in the smooth-coated classes, 

 Major Allison's Victor being their chief competitor. This dog shows more of the 

 setter than is approved of by Dr. Bond Moore, who takes the lead as a retriever 

 judge, and who has apparently influenced his coadjutor, whether Mr. Lort or Mr. 

 Shirley, in the case of Victor ; but has nevertheless, in conjunction with those 

 gentlemen respectively, at the Alexandra Palace and Birmingham Shows of 1874, 

 and more recently at the Islington Show of 1877, awarded a first prize to Melody, a 

 bitch showing even more of the setter than Victor, according to my judgment. In 

 each case the class was a large one, and that at Birmingham was noted by the judges 

 as " extraordinarily good." With such conflicting fiats, it is difficult to arrive at any 

 definite opinion of the strain considered by the cognoscenti to be the proper type 

 of the smooth-coated retriever, and I have therefore selected one of each kind, 

 my own impression being decidedly in favour of the setter cross, as likely to possess 

 the best nose. Melody is a beautiful bitch, no doubt, but she has no pretensions 

 to superiority in any respect over Victor, and hence the above-mentioned decisions 

 are the more incompatible. Both Paris and Morley are said to be pure Labradors, 

 the former being by Sir Henry Paulett's imported Labrador Lion, out of Bess, 

 an imported Labrador bitch. Paris has won repeatedly the champion prizes at the 

 Crystal Palace and Dublin shows. Melody's pedigree is unusually long in com- 

 parison with other retrievers, and is as follows : 



AC -i fn \ f Moses by Nap (West). 



-m~ . , M1/1 f Sailor (Gorse) ......... [ Di (Adm. Curry). 



Mr. G. Brewis's Melody ............ ImLuUMM ^ f Wyndham (Mejrick). 



(Shirley) ... [? Bounce (Hull). 



How she gets her setter blood I am at a loss to know, but her ears, flag, and 

 feather show it in a most unmistakable manner. 



(a) THE WAVY-COATED RETRIEVES,. 



It is generally supposed that this breed is a cross between the Labrador dog, or 

 the small St. John's, Newfoundland, and the setter ; but in the present day the most 

 successful on the show bench, as above remarked, have been apparently, and often 



