case of the kind tried here (i.e., in the Worship Street Police Court). Such fine, however, must be the full penalty for cruelty, viz., £5. He ordered each defendant to pay the full penalty, and £2 25. costs." The Carlings, who had been supported in their defence by certain "dog fanciers," who expressed their opinions in the witness box as being in favour of cropping, were unable to pay their penalties, and went to gaol. Cooper paid his penalty. A considerable amount of feeling was afterwards manifested, it being generally considered that the fines of the Carlings should have been paid for them by those who, in the habit of cropping their dogs' ears, had supported them in their defence, and practised a barbarous custom which ought to have been discontinued years ago.

It had been an open secret that certain members of the Kennel Club actually advocated and were in favour of this mutilation, but there was no possibility of an appeal against the just decision of Mr. Bushby, so ear-cutting in Great Britain was abolished. A meeting of the Kennel Club took place in due course, when it was unanimously decided that "no dog born after the 31st of March 1895, can, if cropped, win a prize at any show held under Kennel Club Rules." Thus another old, useless, and cruel custom is done away with; and

in due course cropped terriers will be looked upon as hideous as cropped Dalmatians and pugs would do. And it must not be forgotten that fifty years ago, and even more recently, it was the cruel practice to cut closely off the ears of the poor little pugs, whilst earlier the spotted "coach dogs were likewise cropped, merely in order to gratify a depraved taste which at one time was fashionable.

I need hardly say that such a result caused a considerable amount of grumbling, and meetings were at once called by the secretaries of those clubs whose dogs were mostly influenced by the magistrate's decision and the ruling of the Kennel Club. The Great Dane Club were particularly bitter, and after a futile attempt to get the Kennel Club rule modified in order that it would not include dogs born out of Great Britain, ceased to exist after the end of December, 1895, an advertisement to that effect appearing in the Field. A few weeks later an announcement was made of the formation of a new club, which was duly established. Other clubs faced the inevitable more quietly, and, following a certain amount of newspaper controversy and sundry meetings, the Bull Terrier Club decided to do nothing in the matter until at the annual meeting towards the end of 1896, when the members would determine what "a perfect natural ear should be like." After

considerable discussion it was decided that the ears should be "small and semi-erect," but that other shapes of the aural appendages should not disqualify.

As a fact, bull terriers are bred with ears of various kinds-perfectly erect ears known as tulip ears, which are the easiest to produce and therefore the ugliest. The rose ear, which should be of nice size, fine in quality, "folding inwards at its back, the upper or front edge curving over outwards and backwards, showing part of the inside of the burr "-this is the ear seen on the best specimens of the bulldog. The semi-erect ear stands up thickest at the roots, and turns down at the tips where the flesh. and skin are finer-this is the ear adopted by the club, and it will be recognised as being similar to that seen on the collie. The "button" or drop ear is what the latter name denotes. It should be small and fine in texture, and such as is common to the fox terrier, Irish terrier, and on some other terriers. The erect ear, ugly and unsightly, is not likely to be popular with bull terrier breeders. Between the semi-erect, rose, and drop ears there is little to choose, but perhaps that adopted by the Club, a small semi-erect ear, is the most characteristic of the dog of which we write. On looking at Mr. Wardle's drawing, which precedes this chapter, he will be a bold man who can say that the bull terriers

there are not quite as typical and even handsomer and more sprightly in appearance than such as we have been so long accustomed to gaze upon, with their ears unnaturally cut and "sticking up like darts."

At the "big show" in February, 1896 (soon after the edict against cropping), promoted by Mr. C. Cruft, and which took place at Islington, several young bull terriers were benched which had excellent natural ears. Mr. F. Hinks's Amiability, about 30lb. in weight, possesses pretty semi-erect ears, and they looked very well, but this style of ear does not appear to such great advantage on large sized dogs, say between 35lb. and 50lb. in weight. Several of the latter had excellent rose ears, fine in texture, small, and well-carried, Mr. Pegg and Mr. Wanamaker both exhibiting specimens of considerable merit with ears of this class. Mr. Hinks had a bull terrier with very small and beautifully carried drop ears, which looked fairly well, though, to my mind, not so satisfactory as good rose ears. Of course, all the winning dogs Mr. Monk and others are showing now have natural ears, and those semi-erect are most usually found. Indeed, the bull terriers on the bench have become quite uniform, and now that we have become accustomed to ears that are not standing" erect as darts" there seems to be a

likelihood of an increasing popularity so far as the bull terrier is concerned.

Few will regret the abolishment of a custom which, in addition to being cruel in the extreme, was terribly troublesome, thoroughly illegal, and absolutely detrimental to the interests of the varieties to which it mostly applied. Had this magisterial decision been given a quarter of a century since there is every probability that at the present time the bull terrier would have been fighting a battle for popularity with the fox terrier, instead of the contest resting as it does between the fox terrier and the Irish terrier. A nicely modelled bull terrier, not more than 161b. weight, is quite as elegant a dog as either, and equally useful and companionable.

The Bull Terrier Club, established in 1887, has adopted the following description of what a bull terrier should be—

"General Appearance.-The general appearance of the bull terrier is that of a symmetrical animal, an embodiment of agility, grace, elegance, and determination.

"Head.-The head should be long, flat, and wide between the ears, tapering to the nose, without cheek muscles. There should be a slight indentation down the face, without a 'stop' between the eyes. The jaws should be long and very powerful, with a large