by judicious crossing with hounds and terriers, otter hounds most likely. A few couple of the latter and of cross-bred hounds had always been kept in Yorkshire, where they were used for hunting the sweet mart and foul mart, once a most favourite pastime with north country sportsmen, and the rough coated hounds crossed with some ordinary darkcoloured, wire-haired terriers could very easily bring about such a dog as the Airedale terrier is now.

Of late years he has been most carefully bred, the over-sized ears have almost entirely disappeared, and in their place is a neat drop ear quite in keeping with the character of the dog and the work he has to do, and few varieties of the terrier have made greater progress in popularity than the one of which I write. Personally, I have been astonished at the number of Airedale terriers seen running about and following their owners in the south of England and in the suburbs of the metropolis; after the fox terrier, who comes first in numbers, he certainly appears to divide favouritism with the Irish terrier. This is, perhaps, because he is a sensible sort of dog, and too big for the dog stealer to pick up and hide away in the pockets of his great coat. Then he is not without his admirers in America and on the Continent, and is a specia! favourite in Holland and in various parts of Germany.

Although he has been kept in some localities (Yorkshire chiefly) for over fifty years, it was not until comparatively recently he was acknowledged as a distinct variety. Sundry newspaper correspondence had taken place about this dog, when some of his admirers called him the Bingley terrier, others the Waterside terrier, but a consensus of opinion decided that he be called the Airedale terrier, because he was most popular in the valley of the Aire, which is now not one of the least important industrial districts in Yorkshire. Birmingham provided him with a class at the National Dog Show in 1883, where he was called the Airedale or Waterside terrier. This dual cognomen continued for two years, when the second name was dropped, and he became the Airedale terrier, as he remains at present. In 1886 he was given a place in the Stud Book, and, unlike some later additions thereto, commenced well with an entry of twenty-four, and, with about three exceptions, all had pedigrees—a fact which certainly proved that they were worthy of the position in which they had been placed. As I have said, some of these earlier dogs had more than a leaning to the hound type, but by careful selection this has been entirely obliterated, and a high-class "Airedale" is as perfect a terrier as man need desire. He has a hard, close coat, long, well-shaped,

expressive head, bright dark eyes, good shoulders, and I am sure no dog exists that can boast of better legs and feet than a good specimen of this variety, and his uniformity of type is thoroughly established. That the latter is the case was in strong evidence at the Crystal Palace show in October, 1891, when Mr. H. M. Bryans' entry of Airedale terriers divided the special honours awarded to the best team of terriers in the show with Mr. Leatham's mustard Dandie Dinmonts. There were eleven batches competing, including fox, Scotch, Skye, Irish, and Bedlington terriers, and the divided victory of Newbold Test, Cholmondeley Briar, and Cholmondeley Bridesmaid was well received, pleasing the admirers of the variety immensely.

As to their gameness, opinions appear to be somewhat divided, and "Stonehenge," in his "Dogs of the British Isles," gave them a very bad character indeed, so far as courage was concerned, but I never knew that their admirers claimed for them this "commodity" to any extraordinary degree. One correspondent wrote: "Airedale terriers are a failure. The result of my experiences of them is that I find them to have good noses, they will beat a hedgerow, will find and kill rats and rabbits, and work well with ferrets. They are good water dogs and companions, possessing a fair amount of intelligence. This is

the sum total of their excellence. They came to me with a great reputation for gameness, but out of fourteen that I have personally tried at badger, and fighting with a bull terrier of 24lb., I have never found one game—at least, to my idea of the word."

But any terrier that would do the above work better than another would be worth keeping. Were a dog like he of 45lb. weight or more to be used at a badger he should kill the poor brute instead of merely "drawing' him. I think that those individuals who at Wolverhampton show about 1883 made a semi-public exhibition of an Airedale terrier against a badger, an animal the like of which the poor dog had never seen before, were extremely badly advised. As for fighting, any terrier fond of it is a nuisance to his owner and to the owner of any other dog. For the Airedale terrier was claimed superiority as a worker by the riverside after rats, and as an assistant to the gun in working hedgerows and thick coppices, which, it was said, he could do better than a spaniel and take up less room than a retriever.

However, perhaps what Mr. E. Bairstow, of Bradford, has written about the Airedale terrier in "The Dog Owner's Annual," and which he kindly revised for publication here, will be of interest, he being

one of the oldest breeders of this dog, of which I need scarcely say he is a most enthusiastic admirer. He says:

"This very popular terrier is now taking the front rank amongst our national terriers, which it deserves, because of its adaptability to almost every kind of sport. If you want to go out with your gun, the Airedale terrier can be trained to do the work of the pointer, setter, spaniel, and retriever, or if you like coursing he is all there; as a guard and companion or watchdog he has no equal-in fact, he is, without a doubt, the most useful dog living. He is rough, hardy, and strong; if indoors, there is no strong smell from his coat or skin, as he has no dense undercoat. If left outside in the most severe winter weather, he is not affected by the cold; no trouble in washing, brushing, and combing, only a walk to the waterside and into the water he goes, diving like a duck, or breasting and swimming against the stream with the strength and power of a dog double his size; never tired, working as long and as fresh as any dog living. No wonder, then, that this dog should become the more popular the more he gets known.

"In all my experience, I never came across any person who ever had an Airedale terrier over twelve months who would utter one word of disparagement against him.