thrown down. The sleeping-place is constructed by simply sliding a 6in. wide board, across the inner compartment, 18in. from the back of the kennel, as shown in Fig. 88, and in the space thus formed clean, dry straw is placed.

All the inner walls should be limewashed periodically, and if Eight Fect six inches

FIG. 87.-GROUND PLAN OF BULLDOG KENNEL.

a good handful of salt is added to the bucket of limewash, it will prevent it from flaking, or rubbing off on the clothes and hands. The same salted limewash is capable of withstanding the weather for a considerable time, and if the roof of the kennel is treated with it during the hot summer months, the white surface will reflect the

FIG. 88.-VIEW OF INTERIOR OF Bulldog Kennel.

hot sunrays, and the kennel will be kept at a far lower temperature than if the roof were coloured or dark.

The ground on which the kennel stands should be prepared by making a surface of cinders, brick-ballast, coke-breeze, or some similar and suitable material, which must be well rammed or rolled down to make a hard, level surface. Aspect is a very important

consideration. Let the kennel stand facing the south, south-west, or west, not to the north or east, if the dog's life is valued.

Should an amateur carpenter attempt to make the kennel described, he may possibly experience some difficulty in obtaining the iron railing for the front of the run. If this be the case, stout galvanised wire netting (sheep netting) may be substituted, but it must be carefully put on, with its edges sandwiched between a batten of wood and the frame of the kennel, and it must be the very stoutest gauge procurable, or it will not last long.

Two or three good coats of oil paint, or a coating of Stockholm tar (not gas-tar), will protect the outer walls from the weather, and a fresh coat should be laid on at least once a year. Ventilation

must on no account be forgotten. If the trap is kept closed at night, there must be some holes in the sliding panel, and there must also be ventilation holes above the doorway, or in some other convenient place near the roof.

The dog owner who is ambitious of becoming a successful breeder must carefully study all the various points of the dog he fancies, and, by judicious mating, seek to improve upon the bad or weak points possessed by the dam, by securing as a mate a dog who excels and whose ancestors have excelled in those particular points. This is the rule of successful breeding in brief, and while it applies to all other breeds, it certainly applies with much force to the successful breeding of Bulldogs.

The portraits that illustrate these pages are of three Bulldog

celebrities of recent days. It is a difficult task to decide to which dog belongs the honour of being the most typical specimen. On this subject opinions are divided. Some, the writer included, give the pride of place to Champion Boomerang (Fig. 89), with his magnificent head qualities; others set Champion Rodney Stone

(Fig. 90) in a still higher niche; but it must be admitted that whichever of these two dogs was really the better, there was so little to choose between them that either would serve for the model that all would-be breeders should study and endeavour by judicious mating to reproduce. Whether he will be successful or no is

another matter, but the object-lesson he will have learned will do him no harm.

Champion Boomerang, who has been dead some years, was a son of King Orry, and was owned by a well-known North-country fancier, Mr. Luke Crabtree. Champion Rodney Stone, who is at the moment of writing living, expatriated from his country, in America, was bred by Mr. Walter Jefferies, of London, by whom the dog was sold for the record price of £1,000. Katapult (Fig. 91), late the property of Mr. George Murrell, was a son of Boomerang, but he never achieved anything like the success on the show-bench associated with his sire, though he himself sired another dog that gained many championship honours-Champion Prince Albert, now in the possession of Mr. Crabtree.

There are some eight or ten "strains" of Bulldogs, each strain having for its founder some well-known dog, not necessarily a big prize winner, but rather one who has achieved fame through his progeny. The best known and most frequently met with of these strains are the Aston Lion, the Bedgebury Lion, the Don Salano, the King Orry, the Donax, and the Stockwell, all of which take their names from the dogs that founded them. There were many other strains, but these have become merged in the present-day ones named, as in time the breeding together of some of the above strains will in turn produce fresh ones.

Though to the average man a Bulldog is merely a Bulldog, the experienced fancier can detect certain characteristics which enable him to tell, almost at a glance, the strain from which the dog is bred. Some of these strains are far more characteristic than others. The King Orry bred dog, for instance, is generally unmistakable, if he is a good specimen of his breed, so too is the Aston Lion bred dog. The former is usually very strong in head properties, and possesses good ears; the latter excels in body properties, his ears are rather inclined to be heavy, and in turnup or under-jaw he is very uncertain. Thus it behoves the owner of a bitch he is wishful to breed from first to determine in which points she is weakest, and then to select for her a mate possessing good points to counteract her bad ones, and not only that, but to endeavour to find a dog that not only possesses them himself, but is bred from a strain noted for strength in these particular points. As an illustration: for a bitch deficient in most of the head qualities and possessing bad ears, a good-headed dog with good ears must be chosen, and if he is of the King Orry strainthat is to say, if the name King Orry appears once or even twice or three times in his pedigree-the puppies, or at any rate a large proportion of them, will be born with good ears, inherited from their sire and from their ancestors on the sire's side.

Haphazard breeding very rarely proves successful. It is a mistake

to select a mate for one's bitch simply because the dog belongs to a friend or lives in the immediate neighbourhood, for it is probable that he will not suit the bitch at all, and the resulting puppies will prove wasters.

For information as to the care and treatment of the bitch in whelp a perusal of "Popular Dog Keeping is recommended.*

Bull bitches are notoriously poor mothers, and very few are capable of rearing all their own puppies, so that the services of a foster-mother should be secured in anticipation of the birth of the puppies. The foster may be a half-bred Terrier, Collie, or some

similar dog, and she should be due to whelp a couple or three days before the Bull bitch. It matters little of what breed she is, so long as she is clean, healthy, and has an abundant supply of milk, and as cross-bred bitches generally prove the best mothers, one should be bought or hired for the purpose.

The puppies should be left with the dam or foster for six weeks, but during the last two weeks of this period the mother's milk should be supplemented with some light and suitable food, which can be given as soon as the puppies have learned to lap.

"Popular Dog Keeping," by J. Maxtee (London: L. Upcott Gill).