116 . DOMESTICATED DOGS 
: 'Thé head has a narrow, long, and flat skull, with marked brows 
but no great rise at that part. It gradually tapers from the ears 
to the nose. .. The skin covering it is tightly drawn over the bones, 
and shows no tendency to wrinkle. 
The. jaws are long, tapering gradually from the cheeks, which 
should. not be full and bulging, indicative of a bulldog cross: 
Teeth level, or, if. anything, a trifle overhung. Nose perfectly 
black.. 
The eyes.are small, sharp, and expressive, the iris being so dark 
a brown as to look black without a close examination. Though 
small, they should be set level with the edge of the orbit, and 
neither below nor above its surface. 
The cars are almost invariably cropped, and that in a way to 
cause great pain to the dog, not only at the time, but for many 
weeks afterwards. In order to give a very sharp appearance, the 
“leather” is cut away almost level with the head, leaving a thin point 
standirig up in a manner quite unnatural to the animal in any of 
his varieties. To do this requires a very good eye and some 
practice, but, however well the operation is done, the wound will 
contract and pucker the slip left if daily attention is not paid 
to it, by removing the scabs and stretching out the puckers ; the 
thin and sharp point shrinks into an unsightly crumpled lump, 
and instead of an appearance being presented of greater sharpness 
than before, the reverse is exhibited. Hopes have been entertained 
of late years that this practice of cropping would be abandoned in 
the case of these terriers, as has been done with the pug, but I see 
no indications of such a happy result; and undoubtedly a Man- 
chester terrier, however well made and marked, would be left out 
of the prize list by any of our judges if exhibited with his ears 
entire. The operation is not usually done till the puppy is six or 
seven months old, as until that time it is almost impossible to get 
the desired shape, and this makes it all the more painful, as by 
that time the cartilages have become hard, and a sharp pair of 
scissors must be used with considerable force to put through them. 
The natural ear is thin in well-bred dogs, and falls over outwards, 
but seldom lies quite close to the cheeks, often exhibiting a ten- 
dency to the rose or tulip form, and the two ears seldom matching 
exactly. It is.a great deal on this account, I think, that the 
