300 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM

is the trace, which is a line of black running along the top of the back from the occiput to the tail. It is the exception to find a fawn Pug with any trace at all now. The muzzle should be short, blunt, but not upfaced. Most of the winning Pugs of the present day are undershot at least half an inch, and consequently must be upfaced. Only one champion of the present day possesses a level mouth. The toe-nails should be black according to the standard, but this point is ignored altogether. In fact, the standard, as drawn up by the Club, should be completely revised, for it is no true guide. The colour, which should be either silver or apricot fawn ; the markings on the head, which should show a thumbmark or diamond on the forehead, together with the orthodox size, are not now taken into consideration, and the prizes are given to over-sized dogs with big skulls that are patchy in colour, and the charming little Pugs which were once so highly prized are now the exception rather than the rule, while the large, lustrous eyes, so sympathetic in their expression, are seldom seen.

The black Pug is a recent production. He was brought into notice in 1886, when Lady Brassey exhibited some at the Maidstone Show. By whom he was manufactured is not a matter of much importance, as with the fawn Pug in existence there was not much difficulty in crossing it with the shortestfaced black dog of small size that could be found, and then back again to the fawn, and the thing was done. Fawn and black Pugs are continually being bred together, and, as a rule, if judgment is used in the selection of suitable crosses, the puppies are sound in colour, whether fawn or black. In every respect except markings the black Pug should be built on the same lines as the fawn, and be a cobby little dog with short back and well-developed hind-quarters, wide in skull, with square and blunt muzzle and tightly-curled tail.

CHAPTER XLVII
THE BRUSSELS GRIFFON

AWAY back in the 'seventies numbers of miners in Yorkshire and the Midlands are said to have possessed little wirycoated and wiry-dispositioned red dogs, which accompanied their owners to work, being stowed away in pockets of overcoats until the dinner hour, when they were brought out to share their masters' meals, perchance chasing a casual rat in between times. Old men of to-day who remember these little " red tarriers " tell us that they were the originals of the present-day Brussels Griffons, and to the sporting propensities of the aforesaid miners is attributed the gameness which is such a characteristic of their latter-day representatives.

No one who is well acquainted with the Brussels Griffon would claim that the breed dates back, like the Greyhound, to hoary antiquity, or, indeed, that it has any pretensions to have " come over with the Conqueror." The dog is not less worthy of admiration on that account. It is futile to inquire too closely into his ancestry ; like Topsy, " he growed " and we must love him for himself alone.

Even in the last fifteen years we can trace a certain advance in the evolution of the Brussels Griffon. When the breed was first introduced under this name into this country, underjaw was accounted of little or no importance, whereas now a prominent chin is rightly recognised as being one of the most important physical characteristics of the race. Then, again, quite a few years ago a Griffon with a red pin-wire coat was rarely met with, but now this point has been generally rectified, and every show specimen of any account whatever possesses the much-desired covering.

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