535 
CHAPTER LEXI. 
PET DOGS AND HAIRLESS DOGS. 
“Plus qua je vois les hommes, plus jaime les chiens.” 
N most of the Continental countries, as 
in the United States, the little dogs 
of which in Great Britain we make pets 
and drawing-room companions are commonly 
kept, the active Fox-terrier, the silky-coated 
Yorkshire, the fluffy Pomeranian, or Loulou, 
the snowy - coated 
Maltese, the impu- 
dent Brussels Grif- 
fon, and the many 
varieties of Toy 
Spaniels and minia- 
ture terrrers —all 
these and many 
more of the smaller 
breeds that are so 
familiar to us are 
treasured as com 
panions in other 
lands. But there are 
some in addition 
which are compara- 
tively little known 
in the British dog 
shows, and which 
R. RENTOUL SYMON, 
have not been no- 
ticed in the fore- 
going pages. Then, too, there is the cur‘ous 
tribe of hairless dogs of which so little is 
yet understood. It is necessary that these 
should be mentioned. 
The Chihuahua.—The dog of Chihuahua 
(pronounced Chee-wa-wa) is, perhaps, the 
smallest of the canine family. A_ full 
grown specimen may be so minute as to 
stand with all four feet upon a man’s 
hand. Some mature dogs have failed to 
turn the scale at twenty-three ounces ; but 
a larger specimen may weigh as much as 
four pounds, which is a trifle over the weight 
of Mrs. Lilburn MacEwan’s Chadro. In 
the British Museum some years ago there 
was the stuffed skin of a bitch of this breed 
CHIHUAHUA DOG CHADRO. 
IMPORTED FROM MEXICO BY 
ESQ. 
very little, if anything, larger than a rat, 
and, as if to prove her of mature growth, 
beside her were her two pups, about as 
big as mice. 
It is a native of Mexico, where there are 
other very small lap-dogs. But the Chi- 
huahua is a_ breed 
distinct in itself, and 
is not to be con- 
founded with the 
tiny long-haired and 
large-eared Mexican 
* Poodle.” A re- 
markable fact in 
connection with the 
dog is that when 
taken away from 
Chihuahua, and bred 
for a time in another 
part of the world, or 
even in any other 
district of Mexico 
the progeny increases 
in bulk and becomes 
as the natives say 
“ degenerado.” Cap- 
tain Mayne Reid 
noticed this in the case of individuals met 
with in the Mexican capital, where the 
little creature is greatly prized as a pet. 
He thought it possible that the climate 
and soil had something to do with the 
increase of size under expatriation from 
the high table-lands of Chihuahua, and 
certainly it seems to be impossible to main- 
tain the small size for many generations 
in any other country than Chihuahua. 
Presumably the Conquistadores of Mexico, 
finding it there, carried it not only to old 
Spain, but throughout all Spanish America. 
There are some persons who believe that 
the Chihuahua was the original of the Belgian 
Papillon, but this is to confuse the smooth- 
