258 THE DOGS OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 



two poodles in London who played a game of ecartS with all the rapidity and skill 

 of professional players. As regards that sort of thing, General Hutchinson, in his 

 work on dog breaking, sixth edition, page 246, narrates what he himself saw 

 performed by a Russian poodle in Paris. The dog told what o'clock it was, told 



fortunes, &c and there is an illustration, page 245, of a notorious poodle 



playing a game of dominoes. Several of these dogs have played cards well, and 

 numberless tricks have been taught them. They are, in fact, the performing dogs 

 of all public exhibitions. 



To return now to foreign authors' opinions about the poodle, I find in a small 

 book entitled " Conseils aux Chasseurs," by Charles Bemelmans, gamekeeper, page 

 108, a few lines relating to barbets. Strange to say, Bemelmans, who really ought to 

 know better than even allude to the exploded idea, says that poodles are but 

 mediocre setting dogs ! Who ever saw a poodle on point ? Evidently this author 

 is all at sea there. He, however, testifies that poodles are extremely good retrievers, 

 and very intelligent. 



Another French author, the Viscount de la Neuville, in " La Chasse au Chien 

 d'Arret," devotes a paragraph to poodles. He declares that they can be broken 

 easily to do anything one likes, they are so clever and sensible. He says that the 

 " poodle is not, strictly speaking, a setting dog " (which shows a better knowledge 

 of the subject than Bemelmans exhibits), "but that he is excellent for retrieving in 

 marshes or flushing marsh birds. He is, however, slow in his work, and easily put 

 out of wind. The usual colour is liver, but a smaller breed, called petit barbet, is 

 black." So he says. But I have seen hard-working poodles of as many varieties in 

 size, form, and colour as one might notice in all our breeds of spaniels, barring 

 Clumbers, put together. As regards colour, I have seen black poodles, liver poodles, 

 white poodles, and varieties of black and white and liver and white ad libitum. 

 Concerning size, I have seen a Russian poodle quite as big as a large-sized retriever ; 

 and a sporting French or Belgian poodle not much bigger than a Sussex spaniel. In 

 form, again, they vary greatly. Some have almost exactly the lines of the Irish 

 water spaniel, and others were as broad as they were high ; but they all had the 

 same head, the same intelligent eye, and the same texture of coat, woolly and thick 

 underneath, and hanging in ringlets outwardly. The length of ear is also a 

 remarkable feature in the poodle. As a rule, it ought, when brought over the nose, 

 to reach at least over the other ear. 



As regards utility, personal experience, especially in sporting matters, goes a 

 very long way, and I have myself seen poodles at work in Holland, in Belgium, and 

 in France. In fact, throughout the Continent, wherever marshes are still to be 

 found, the professional duck shooters use poodles. Why ? Why, for two very good 

 reasons : the first of which is that there are no other good breeds of water spaniels 

 to be had there, for love or money, except in a few favoured localities where British 

 shooters have imported English and Irish water spaniels. The French and the 

 Dutch have no spaniels proper. What they call epagneuls de tnarais (which ex- 

 pression, naturally enough, we would translate verbatim by " marsh spaniels," i.e., 

 water spaniels) are simply setters which have been broken to marsh shooting. The 



