THE LABRADOR RETRIEVER 
black again. Ben was out of a black Labrador bitch named Duchess by 
Neptune. For many years the Labradors at Hyde came the normal black 
colour, but by a freak of Nature two yellow puppies were born in a black 
litter, and one of these was Ben. It is rather a curious fact that it is only 
of recent years that any of the black bitches began to produce fawn or 
yellow puppies with any frequency, though an odd, light -coloured puppy 
had occasionally appeared, but very rarely. The yellow Labradors at Hyde 
have a rather coarser and slightly longer coat than most black dogs, but 
they have the true thick and dense undercoat, which the pure -bred dog 
invariably possesses. It is possible that the coarser and longer coat is due 
to the fact that the breed there has been kept pure by breeding from dogs 
belonging to the Earl of Malmesbury and Lord Wimborne, all of which 
are descended from the original dogs imported by Hawker to Poole. There 
has always been a careful selection of type of dogs kept for breeding, and 
any with narrow heads are put down. The result is that they now have 
a good broad head, with ears well set on, and a very nice open type of 
countenance. There is no necessity for inbreeding to maintain the colour 
and type for Mr A. Browne, of Callaby Castle, in Northumberland, has 
had a strain of black Labradors for the last twenty -five years, the bitches of 
which at times throw a yellow puppy, and if the actual puppies in a litter 
are black ones, they often in their turn produce yellow ones. Mr H. G. 
Atkinson Clark’s Sloe is an instance of this; she was one of Mr A. Browne’s 
breed and black in colour, yet frequently producing yellow puppies, even 
though mated to a black dog. When mated to Captain Radclyffe’s Ben, 
she produced Blanco, now owned by Lord Lonsdale. 
Some breeders have tried crossing the flat or wavy coated retriever 
with the Labrador, and from the point of view of work this cross is excel- 
lent. Colonel C. J. Cotes’s Pitchford Monarch and Lord William Percy’s 
Fleetfoot are both notable examples of a good result, and have won 
field trial honours. Many people have made use of this cross to get the 
darker eye, but crossing for this purpose alone is to be deprecated. Those 
who have made use of the Labrador to bring new blood into the flat-coated 
breed have done so with the intention of breeding back as fast as pos- 
sible to their own breed, and that excellent authority on dogs. Colonel 
Cotes, informed the writer that in four generations the result would be 
pure flat coat again in appearance. In the first cross it will be found that as 
a rule fully five out of six puppies in the litter come almost Labrador 
in appearance and take after the Labrador almost entirely, so much so 
269 
