306 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM

dog, and his engaging manners and cleanliness of habit ought to place him among the most favoured of lady's pets and lapdogs. It is to be hoped that the efforts now being made by the Black and Tan Terrier Club will be beneficial to the increased popularity of this diminutive breed.

For the technical description and scale of points the reader is referred to the chapter on the larger variety of Black and Tan Terrier (see p. 196).

Of late years Toy Bull-terriers have fallen in popularity. This is a pity, as their lilliputian self-assertion is most amusing. As pets they are most affectionate, excellent as watch-dogs, clever at acquiring tricks, and always cheerful and companionable. They have good noses and will hunt diligently ; but wet weather or thick undergrowth will deter them, and they are too small to do serious harm to the best stocked game preserve.

The most valuable Toy Bull-terriers are small and very light in weight, and these small dogs usually have " apple-heads." Pony Queen, the former property of Sir Raymond Tyrwhitt Wilson, weighed under 3 lb., but the breed remains " toy " up to 15 lb. When you get a dog with a long wedge-shaped head, the latter in competition with small " apple-headed " dogs always takes the prize, and a slightly contradictory state of affairs arises from the fact that the small dog with an imperfectly shaped head will sell for more money than a dog with a perfectly shaped head which is larger.

In drawing up a show schedule of classes for this breed it is perhaps better to limit the weight of competitors to 12 lb. The Bull-terrier Club put 15 lb. as the lowest weight allowed for the large breed, and it seems a pity to have an interregnum between the large and miniature variety ; still, in the interests of the small valuable specimens, this seems inevitable, and opportunist principles must be applied to doggy matters as to other business in this world. At present there is a diversity of opinion as to their points, but

THE MINIATURE BREEDS   307

roughly they are a long flat head, wide between the eyes and tapering to the nose, which should be black. Ears erect and bat-like, straight legs and rather distinctive feet ; some people say these are cat-like.

Toy Bull-terriers ought to have an alert, gay appearance, coupled with refinement, which requires a nice whip tail. The best colour is pure white. A brindle spot is not amiss, and even a brindle dog is admissible, but black marks are wrong. The coat ought to be close and stiff to the touch. Toy Bull-terriers are not delicate as a rule. They require warmth and plenty of exercise in all weathers.

The most elegant, graceful, and refined of all dogs are the tiny Italian Greyhounds. Their exquisitely delicate lines, their supple movements and beautiful attitudes, their soft large eyes, their charming colouring, their gentle and loving nature, and their scrupulous cleanliness of habit-all these qualities justify the admiration bestowed upon them as drawing-room pets. They are fragile, it is true-fragile as eggshell china-not to be handled roughly. But their constitution is not necessarily delicate, and many have been known to live to extreme old age. Miss Mackenzie's Jack, one of the most beautiful of the breed ever known, lived to see his seventeenth birthday, and even then was strong and healthy. Their fragility is more apparent than real, and if they are not exposed to cold or damp, they require less pampering than they usually receive. This cause has been a frequent source of constitutional weakness, and it was deplorably a fault in the Italian Greyhounds of half a century ago.

One cannot be quite certain as to the derivation of the Italian Greyhound. Its physical appearance naturally suggests a descent from the Gazehound of the ancients, with the added conjecture that it was purposely dwarfed for the convenience of being nursed in the lap. Greek art presents many examples of `a very small dog of Greyhound type, and there is a probability that the diminutive breed was a familiar ornament