THE FOX-TERRIER. 83 



was regarded as the oracle from whom we might expect the 

 words of wisdom required to define the properties and points of 

 the breed. But since the above strains were mostly white and 

 tan, what is called " the true-hound colour," viz., white marked 

 with black and tan, was not at first so much de rigeur as it now 

 is ; for though many white and red and white and black fox- 

 terriers get first prizes, yet the hound colour with most judges 

 wipes out many trifling blots which would otherwise keep the 

 individual in the H. C. division. 



The origin of this colour is said by the admirers of the breed 

 to have been a cross with the black and tan English terrier, but 

 others allege that the beagle has been resorted to, adducing the 

 close-falling ear as a proof of their theory. Certainly, with the 

 exception of the Dandie Dinmont and the dog now under con- 

 sideration, none of the terriers have ears falling close to the 

 cheeks, and I see no reason to suppose that breeders would take 

 the trouble in either case to obtain by selection a property entirely 

 in opposition to that already displayed by the best examples of 

 either. Without doubt it would be easy enough to do so in 

 course of time, as we all know what can be done by careful 

 selection ; but my long experience teaches me that, when such 

 changes have occurred, they have been accidental, and not the 

 result of a plan laid down beforehand, unless some good purpose 

 was to be answered, which is certainly not the case with the ears 

 of fox-terriers. Formerly they were, like all other terriers, care- 

 fully cropped ; and no doubt it was because the natural ear kept 

 out the earth from the internal passages that the practice was 

 discontinued; but the half-pricked ear of the English terrier 

 answers this purpose equally well, as it is only the soil falling 

 from the roof of the earth which can enter the passage, not that 

 thrown back by the feet of the dog in his digging. Hence I can 



