FOREIGN NON-SPORTING AND UTILITY BREEDS. 
when this portrait was taken was 72 Ib., 
which was 18 lb. less than his usual weight. 
His height at the shoulder was 21 inches, the 
circumference of his skull 23 inches ; corner 
of eye to tip of nose, 2 inches. His nose 
was well laid back. There was a crook in 
the middle of his tail. 
The Spanish Alano may 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 they 
are there used both as watch dogs and 
for shooting over. There is a type of 
the same dog in the Azores, known as 
the Matin de Terceira, or the Perro do 
Presa. The ears are aiways 
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 engaged 
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. 
511 
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 unchanged, 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 TERCEIRA CAO. 
PROPERTY OF SENOR L. ROSAS; CARTAXO. 
legs, and occasionally also the heavy tail 
curled over the level back—all characteristics 
of the Asiatic Mastiff. Cynologists 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 
