THE ITALIAN GEEYHOUND. 247 



As an excellent illustration of the breed, I have retained the portrait of the 

 late Mr. H. Gilbert's Prince, a prize winner in 1863-4. He was of the pure Morrison 

 strain, and the first of it exhibited uncropped. I have also added the very 

 interesting portraits of the parent stock of the Willoughby strain, painted by 

 Alfred Dreux, a French artist of some celebrity, and evidently drawn with great 

 care and apparent fidelity. Nell would take a prize in the present day, barring her 

 throatiness ; but the face of Mops is too long for the modern fancy, and has been 

 "bred out" by careful selection. No doubt the cross was a judicious one, as what 

 was absent in Mops was well marked in Nell the bad colour of the latter being the 

 only adverse point which has been retained. 



THE ITALIAN GEEYHOUND. 



This elegant little pet resembles its English sporting congener in shape and 

 colour, differing mainly in its diminutive size, and in the remarkable " prancing " 

 action which it almost invariably exhibits with its forelegs. No other animal, as far 

 as I know, possesses this action to the same extent. It is true that some horses lift 

 their knees till, as the dealers say, " they are in danger of putting their feet through 

 their curb chains ;" but this is done in a comparatively heavy and lumbering style, 

 without the true dance-like " prance " of the Italian greyhound. Occasionally, but 

 very rarely, an English greyhound, or even a deerhound, exhibits the action to some 

 extent, but even then it is exceptional ; whereas in the Italian it is the rule, and 

 almost an invariable one. 



Owing to the extent to which in-breeding has been carried by the lovers of 

 this dog, he is often extremely delicate, is always difficult to rear, and when attacked 

 by distemper the disease is frequently fatal. To obviate this constitutional defect, 

 recourse has been lately had to a cross with the toy terrier, which has to some 

 extent succeeded in this respect ; but unfortunately it has introduced a large round 

 skull and short face, sometimes attended with a falling terrier-like ear, also 

 increased in size. With the exception of these defects, many of these cross-breds 

 have been extremely beautiful, and the practice has enabled breeders to obtain a 

 diminished size without loss of symmetry. In 1859 I published a portrait of 

 Gowan's Billy, whose grandsire, great grandsire, gg grandsire, ggg and gggg 

 grandsire were all the same dog, imported from Italy. At that time he was 

 generally admitted to be the most perfect specimen of his kind in England, and he 

 was possessed of the true greyhound head and ears ; but his stock were very 

 delicate, and I believe his strain is now extinct, at all events in a pure state. He 

 was 14|in. high, and nearly 91b. in weight, which would now be considered some- 

 what over the proper size ; but his symmetrically elegant shape has been reproduced 

 on a smaller scale since then in the case of Mr. Bourke's Molly, who was absolutely 

 faultless in all respects but her head, which was a trifle " bullety," as compared 

 with Billy and other dogs of the old strain. In nearly all breeds of dogs elegance 

 of form is shown more in the female than in the male ; but this is especially to be 

 noted in the various kinds of greyhounds, and in their ally the deerhound. Just as 



