Standard Versus Judge 125 



ities. In my idea, a true judge is one who, mindful 

 of the standard, weighs each point in its proper 

 relation to the whole. A woman may have beauti- 

 ful eyes, but if she has a flat nose and a humpback, 

 she does not appeal to one as a handsome woman. 

 It is not from the super-excellence of any one point 

 that breeders evolve perfection. It is rather from 

 the selection of animals that, not superlatively good 

 in one point, are good all round. How often do 

 you hear some judge, when questioned as to his 

 decisions, on say a fox-terrier, to make it easy, and 

 it is pointed out to him how large the dog's ears are, 

 how full in eye, and short in muzzle it is, exclaim, 

 'Ah! but I couldn't get away from his beautiful 

 front!' Do forelegs and shoulders constitute the 

 alpha and omega of a fox-terrier? Not much! 

 Give me the dog that, as a whole, comes nearer to 

 the ideal set forth by the standard. Can Major 

 Taylor tell us what standard he has had in his mind 

 when placing some of the field-trial dogs high up 

 in the scale of honor at dog shows? He had formed 

 ideas of his own. Type was one thing, and seeming 

 ability to gallop, which any setter, not deformed, 

 should be able to do, was another, and 'another' got 

 the verdict. 



"^\^at are we to think of a judge who gives three 

 money prizes to three dogs, each different in its 



