FOREIGN XON-SPORTING AND UTILITY BREEDS. 511 



when this portrait was taken was 72 lb., 

 which was iS lb. less than his usual weight. 

 His height at the shoulder was 21 inches, the 

 circumference of his skull 23 inches ; comer 

 of ej'e to tip of nose, 2 inches. His nose 

 was well laid back. There was a crook in 

 the middle of his tail. 



The Spanish Aleuio maj- be the same 

 as the Spanish Bulldog, though it is 

 lighter in build and has less of the old 

 "brack about it. Formerly it was used in 

 the national bullfights of Spain. Alanos, 

 of pure breed, are still to be found 

 in Andalusia and Estramadura, and thej^ 

 are there used both as watch dogs and 

 for shooting over. There is a tj^pe of 

 the same dog in the Azores, known as 

 the Matin de Terceira, or the Perro do 

 Presa. The ears are always 

 cut round. The coat is short 

 and smooth, and is of various 

 shades of yellow, sometimes 

 with white or darker patches. 

 Its height is about 23 inches, 

 and weight 150 lb. The spe- 

 cimen represented in the pho- 

 tograph was the property of 

 Senor L. Rosas, of Cartaxo. 



The fact that the Alano of 

 Andalusia is still used as a 

 hunting dog brings one to the 

 suggestion that many of the 

 massive dogs of Flanders are 

 of approximate type, and that 

 these also were at one time 

 used in the chase. It is no- 

 ticeable that many of the 

 hounds depicted in the old 

 Flemish tapestries of the six- 

 teenth and seventeenth cen- 

 turies hunting the stag and 

 the boar are undoubtedly 

 Alanos or Matins, and there is 

 a magnificent picture, by Ru- 

 bens, showing five such dogs 

 furiously in an attack upon a stag 



Many of the dogs used for heavy draught 

 work in Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent, 

 would almost justify the belief that they 

 are the descendants of such animals as 

 Rubens so vigorously portrayed. 



The Thibet Mastiff. — With his ma- 

 jestic form and noble head, his deep fur 

 of velvet black, and rich, mahogany tan 

 markings, the Thibet Mastiff is one of the 

 handsomest, as he is one of the rarest, 

 of the canine race. He is also assuredly 

 one of the most ancient, for his type has 

 been preserved unchjinged, since a period 

 dating long anterior to the beginning of the 

 Christian era. There can be no doubt that 

 the great dogs depicted in the sculptures 

 from the palace of Nimrod (B.C. 640) are of 

 this and no other breed. In these carven 

 representations of the gigantic dogs accom- 

 panying the sport-loving Assyrian kings or 

 pursuing the desert lion or the wild horse, 

 we have the wrinkled head with pendant 

 ears, the massive neck, the sturdy fore- 



MATIN DE 

 PROPERTY 



TERCEIRA CAO. 



3F SENOR L. ROSAS- 



engaged legs, and occasionally also the heavy tail 

 curled over the level back — all characteristics 

 of the Asiatic Mastiff. Cjmologists ran- 

 sacking the ages for evidence concerning 

 the early breeds, have discovered a yet more 

 ancient testimony to the antiquity of the 

 dog of Thibet, contained in Chinese writing 



