Ladies’ Tov Dogs. 91 
graceful, or, perhaps, the most graceful and racing-looking 
creature on the face of the earth. 
Bewick gives no engraving of the Italian greyhound, 
which is to be regretted; and without doubt he would 
have given one if a specimen could have been procured. 
In Italy it has always been a favourite, and we gather 
from the pictures of Antoine Watteau, the celebrated 
French painter, that it was much esteemed by the lords 
and ladies of his country at the close of the seventeenth 
or at the beginning of the eighteenth century; but they 
were known and in the hands of the rich—as graceful 
and perhaps as small as at the present time—in Milan in 
the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 
Hogarth has represented a pair of dogs, somewhat of 
the breed, in one of his pictures of ‘‘ Marriage a la Mode,” 
and this dog occasionally appears in the portraits of our 
old English families ; but as we have before observed, it 
has always been scarce, and it is exceedingly delicate and 
hard to rear. 
It is neither more nor less than a small greyhound, for 
which Italy was celebrated, and which perhaps was origi- 
nally bred as a distinct breed. It must have become 
dwarfed from climate or constant “in-breeding,” but it 
has never been in any way deformed by the means 
adopted to decrease its size. 
The externaT form of the Italian exactly corresponds 
with that of the smooth English greyhound. I will ob- 
serve that the head should be wide behind, and larger 
‘in circumference if measured over the ears than over the 
“eyebrows. The jaw should be very lean, with a good 
muscular development of the cheek. The eye of the 
’ Italian variety, however, should not be so large or full as 
that of the English dog. 
It has been settled that the ear of the Italian should be 
exceedingly small, and falling flat, except when the animal 
is animated. It may then be slightly raised, but never 
pricked. 
Blue and fawn are the favourite colours; the latter 
should be of an auburn hue. Various colours, however, 
are fashionable for a time, and then fancy changes. At 
