500

taught to retrieve as well as to stand their game. SPANIELS.

Some of the French gun-dogs immediately

BRAQUE LEGER DE L’ARIEGE.

arrest the Briton’s attention by their unfamiliar peculiarities of shape and colour.

The Pont-Audemer Spaniel, for instance, which is, properly speaking, a Setter, is a most original-looking animal, differing entirely from any sporting dog we have in England. The head in particular is quite distinct. It is extremely long and tapers toa pointed muzzle. The hair is short to the forehead, but the skull is surmounted by a prominent top-knot of long hair which falls in a point towards the eyes, and almost overlaps the pendant ears,

THE: NEW BOOK

OF THE DOG:

themselves covered with a long crisp coat. This crest gives the dog something of a resemblanceto the old English Water Spaniel. The body coat is curly and rather thick, in colour by preference brown and grizzle, then brown and white, or self-coloured brown. Black or black and white are un-

YOUNG

common. is invaluable in the shooting of wild duck

GRIFFON DE BRESSE.

FROM THE PAINTING BY ROSA BONHEUR IN THE WALLACE COLLECTION

It is an excellent water dog, and

and other waterfowl in the marshes.

The French Spaniel proper is a fine-sized animal, one of the best and keenest working dogs left in France. Like the old Braque, he has a long history. He is probably a descendant of the now extinct but once famous Griffon de Bresse, of which Rosa Bonheur painted one of the last examples. Three types or strains are now prominent, each associated with the name of its original breeder. They are the Griffon @arrét Picard, of which Mr. A. Guerlain, of Crotoy, had the first

M. A. DUQUESNE'S PONT-AUDEMER SPANIEL MUSOTTE.

famous kennel; the Griffon Korthals, originally a German rather than

FOREIGN GUN-DOGS AND TERRIERS.

French dog, of which Herr E. K. Korthals, of Biebesheim, was the earliest systematic breeder ; and the Griffon Boulet, brought

GRIFFON KORTHALS CH. RIP DU MAKIS. BRED BY M. A HUCHEDE.

to perfection by M. E. Boulet, of Elbeuf. Superficially they are all three of similar Otterhound type of compact, straightlegged, wire-haired dog; but the Griffon Guerlain strain is perhaps the most elegant in shape and appearance, owing to its shorter and less rugged coat and lighter build. This breed is usually white in colour, with orange or yellow markings, rather short drop ears, and a docked tail, and with a height of about 22 inches. The nose is always brown, and the light eyes are not

ae.

Woe

GRIFFON KORTHALS CH. PRINCESS NADINE.

BRED AND OWNED BY M. A. HUCHEDE.

501

hidden by the prominent eyebrows so frequent in the French Spaniels. By far the most attractive of all the foreign SetterSpaniels, however, is the Korthals Griffon, a dog symmetrical in contour, with a noble head not unlike that of our Airedale Terrier in its length and squareness of muzzle, and determined expression of eye. The coat is wiry, crisp, and harsh, never curly, with a dense undercoat. The colour is steel grey

BRACE OF GRIFFONS KORTHALS. BRED BY M. A. HUCHEDE.

with dark brown patches, often mingled with grey hairs ; or white-grey with lighter brown or yellow patches. The height may be 23 inches, and the weight 56 lb. Mr. KXorthals had the finest team of these Griffons that has ever been seen. Occasionally he exhibited specimens in England, and classes were given for the breed by the Kennel Club at the show held at Barn Elms in the Jubilee year. On one occasion, at the Agricultural Hall, Mr. Korthals gained with one of his Griffons the special prize offered for the best sporting dog in the show owned by a foreigner. At the present time Mr. A. Huchedé, of Montjean, Mayenne, is perhaps the most prominent owner of the breed in France. His Porthos and Néro were famous a few years ago, and his Rip du Makis excels alike as a show dog and as a successful worker in field trials.

502

Princess Nadine is an equally good representative of the opposite sex.

The Griffon Boulet has many of the same characteristics as the Korthals Griffon, the chief difference being that his coat is much longer and not so hard in texture. He is at

present the favourite purely native Spaniel in France, and there were several admirable specimens shown at the Tuileries Gardens A decidedly rugged, coarse-

in May, 1907.

GRIFFON BOULET CH. MIKADO DE MARCO.

BRED BY M. E. BOULET, ELBEUF.

looking dog, he is evidently meant for work rather than for ornament, yet his expression is friendly and intelligent, in spite of his wild and ungroomed aspect, with his broad, round head, square muzzle, heavy moustaches, and strong, overhanging eyebrows. The iris of his eye seems always to be yellow and the nose always brown. The ears are set on low and hang slightly folded, well covered with wavy hair. The shoulders project somewhat instead of sloping. The loins are shghtly arched and end in a straight stern nicely carried, and not too shortly docked. The coat is fairly long and semisilky, without being glossy, flat rather than wavy, and never curly. Its colour is that of a dead chestnut leaf or a dark coffee brown, with or without white ; never black or yellow. For dogs, the height is given at 21 to 224 inches, for bitches a little less.

THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG;

The weight averages 56 lb. Undoubtedly the most famous Griffon Boulet of recent times is Ch. Mikado de Marco, the property of M. Dumontier, of Neubourg, Eure. This most typical dog is of aristocratic descent, as he has no fewer than twenty-nine champions in his pedigree, all of them, like himself, bred by M. Emanuel Boulet. The Barbet is yet another ancient breed of French Spaniel, the dog par excellence for waterfowl. Beyond all others he is at home on the marshes, and even in the most severe weather he will swim amid the broken ice after a winged mallard or a wounded heron. For the wildfowler he is a most valuable companion, and probably no other Spaniel

can bear the same hardships with equal indifference. A perfect

swimmer, he retrieves dead or crippled game to perfection, and in intelligence he is hardly inferior to the Poodle. With his compact build, his round, short head, and long woolly and much corded coat, the Barbet appears to be identical with the old English water dog depicted in Reinagle’s drawing on p. 274 of this book.

Somewhat allied to the Barbet in general appearance and the nature of his work is the important gun-dog known in Italy as the Spinone. In colour he is grey and roan, and although he has often been mistaken for the Bracco, he may be recognised by his less oval head as well as by his shorter and less supple ear. The coat is wire-haired, excepting the legs, where the hair is quite short. He is also smoother and shorter in the head and muzzle. The eyebrows are long and straight, and the lip has bristling moustaches. As in the case of the Bracco, dewclaws on the hind legs are a sign of purity of race. The Spinone is

FOREIGN GUN-DOGS AND TERRIERS.

considered an ancient dog, and it is certain that some of the breed were taken into France as far back as the reign of Henry IV.

In Italy there is an interesting strain of

THE BARBET PATAVEAU.

PROPERTY OF M. P. DEVILLE, PARIS.

white Spinone, in form not unlike a large Irish terrier, of which no record is traceable earlier than 1870. These are found mostly in the neighbourhood of Alba, in Piedmont, and are believed to be the result of a cross

SPINONE D'ALBA.

from the Russian Griffons, introduced by an officer named Ruggieri at the time of the wars of the First Empire. The true Italian Spinone is the roan breed. The white variety

593

is known as the Spinone Ruggieri, or Spinone d’Alba. It is difficult to procure, but this is not perhaps a matter for regret, for in Italy, as everywhere else on the Continent, the indigenous shooting dogs are fast making room for English Pointers, Setters, and Spaniels.

Of the increasing popularity of the English Spaniel, and more especially the Cocker and the Springer, proof is abundantly shown in the catalogues of all Continental shows.

TERRIERS. English doglovers are apt to forget that there are other terriers t hia 1 those of Great Britain; they often ignore the fact that even the name “terrier” itself is a French word originally applied to-small dogs used in the work of following their quarry into earths.

In France at the present time there is no distinctively national terrier, but our neighbours across the Channel have recognised the good qualities of the British breeds, both for sport and as companions, and in all their important shows classes are opened for most of the varieties familiar to us. The French-bred Fox-terriers, both wirehaired and smooth, are usually of excellent type, and the Airedale, the Irish, and the Bull-terrier are fairly popular, while as ladies’ pets the silky-coated Yorkshire has become fashionable in Paris. German and Dutch terriers are also frequently to be seen in France.

The Germans and the Dutch have admirable terriers of their own, notable

DOBERMANN PINSCHER GRAF BRUNO.