slightest excitement — often, upon a sudden sound — it will fly 

 at and mangle the hand that was caressing it. Then the hold 

 taken by this awmal is more retentive, that is, strictly natural. 

 It win fix upon an object, and frequently suffer itself to be 

 dismembered before it will let go its hold, although its master's 

 voice be energetically raised to command it. Do not these 

 traits bespeak the being formed rather by man's maJice, than 

 created by Nature's goodness ? Look at the likeness of the 

 beast, and say how far it resembles the mild, graceful, and 

 generous race to which it outwardly belongs." 



According to Stonehenge, to be well-bred, the bull-dog 

 should present the following characteristics : " The head should 

 be round, the skull high, the eye of moderate size, and the fore- 

 head well sunk between the eyes ; the ears semi-erect and 

 small, well placed on the top of the head, and rather close 

 together than otherwise ; the muzzle short, truncate, and well 

 famished with chop ; the back should be short, well arched 

 towards the stem, which should be fine and of moderate 

 length. Many bull-dogs have what is called a crooked stem, 

 as though the vertebrae, or tail, were dislocated or broken. I 

 am disposed to attribute this to ill-breeding. The coat should 

 be fine, though many superior strains are very woolly-coated ; 

 the chest should be deep and broad, the legs strong and mus- 

 cular, and the foot narrow, and well spht up like a hare's." 



There is scarcely a sporting dog in Europe into whose blood 

 has not been imported some of that of the bull-dog. It is not 

 only as a fighter that the animal excels. Perseverance is as 

 much its characteristic as pugnacity, and many a time it has 

 easily beaten another dog in a feat supposed to be its antago- 

 nist's speciality. For instance, a bull-dog was lately matched 

 by its owner to ewim a match against a, large Newfoundland 

 dog. The owners of the competing quadrupeds threw them 

 out of a boat at a given signal, and then rowed away as fast 

 as possible. The two dogs followed the boat, and the bull-dog 

 won the given distance by a hundred yards. It was remarked 

 that while the whole of the Newfoundland's body was sub- 

 merged, showing only the upper part of his head above the 

 surface, the whole of the bull-dog's head and its neck were 

 visible the whole distance. 



THE CUBAN MA. STIFF. 



This animal is supposed to be a cross between the true 

 EugUsh mastiff and the bloodhound. The aversion to >vh/to 



