CHAPTER XXXIX 

 The Great Dane 



N SPITE of various efforts to give a German name to the 

 Great Dane, both in England and in this country they have 

 met with but little success, and although it is beyond 

 question that we owe the dog of the show-ring to its having 

 been bred for many years in Germany in a systematic 

 manner, he still retains, outside of that country, his original name of Great 

 Dane. Original is perhaps not the correct word to use in this 

 connection, and if we say previous name it is historically more 

 in keeping with the facts. Why it should ever have been entitled 

 the Danish dog we have failed to find any reason. Buffon names it 

 the grand Danois, the "grand" being prefixed to distinguish it from a small 

 terrier-like dog to which was given the name of petit Danois. It has been 

 generally accepted and quoted that the Dalmatian had the name of the 

 lesser Dane, and if we mistake not Buffon is the quoted authority, but that 

 is not correct. Buffon's Dalmatian he called the braque de Bengale, and the 

 mistake in attributing to him the mixing of the Dalmatian with the lesser 

 Dane is probably due to what he said with regard to their colour. Buffon as 

 well as M. Daubenton, who wrote the fuller description of the dogs in the 

 "Histoire Naturelle" — Buffon only writing the general introduction — both 

 distinctly state that the name of petit Danois for this small dog was incor- 

 rect, but it had become so established that they felt compelled to follow the 

 erroneous nomenclature. Buffon in his introduction says it had no other 

 connection with the grand Danois than having the short coat of that dog. 

 M. Daubenton gives the colours of the lesser Dane as follows: "The most 

 of them are black and white spotted, and when they are mottled with black 

 on a white ground we give them the name of harlequin. " This reference to 

 the black markings may have been the reason for assuming, from some 

 quotation probably without context, that it was the Dalmatian that was 

 meant. The illustration with the text shows a small, somewhat apple- 

 headed dog of toy-terrier character, but dark-coloured in body, with a nar- 



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