"Nose. Variable, according to colour of coat and markings: Black and Tans-black; Liver and Tans-dark liver colour; Livers-liver; Black and Tan and White Roans-black; Liver and Tan Roans-liver. "Shoulders and Chest.-Similar to those of the black spaniel. "Back and Loin.-Similar to those of the black spaniel. "Hind Quarters. Similar to those of the black spaniel. "Stern. Similar to those of the black spaniel. "Feet and Legs:-Similar to those of the black spaniel. "Coat. Similar in quality, substance, and texture, and in all other respects, except colour, responding to that given for black spaniels. "Colours. Various, such as black and tan, liver and tan, liver, black, tan, and white roans; liver, tan, and white roans, &c. "General Appearance.-Similar in all respects, except in regard to colour and markings; identical with the general description given before for black spaniels." CHAPTER XVIII. THE COCKER. THIS, the smallest of our race of sporting spaniels, is retrograding rather than progressing, and, hardy, cheerful little dog though he be, sportsmen have found that a bigger dog can do his duties better, even to working rough covert, and it is not a general thing for a cocker to retrieve a rabbit or a hare. Indeed, some cockers I have had would not retrieve at all, nor did I blame them, for retrieving is a duty to be performed by a more powerful dog. The prizes offered for the cocker on the show bench are not of particular value, nor do they carry sufficient honour, to make it worth the while of any one breeding him for such purpose alone, so, as a matter of fact, this once favoured little dog is not growing with the times in the manner which savours of success. Only the larger exhibitions give him classes of his own, and the prizes then do not always go to the genuine article. The cocker of the olden time I should take to be the connecting link between the working and the toy spaniels. We have been told that the Blenheims at Marlborough House were excellent dogs to work the coverts for cock and pheasant, and, excepting in colour, there is in reality not much difference in appearance between the older orange and white toys. (not as they are to-day, with their abnormally short noses, round skulls, and enormous eyes) and the liver and white cockers H. B. Chalon drew for Daniel's "Rural Sports" in 1801. Two of Chalon's little spaniels have just sprung a woodcock, and charming specimens they are, not too low on the leg, nor over-done in the matter of ears, but sprightly little dogs, evidently under 20lb. weight, and of a type we do not find to-day. Many of us lament the growing scarcity of this variety as he was to be found fifty years ago and more. Modern breeders tell us they have provided us with a better and handsomer animal. It is an open question whether they have done the former; I acknowledge they have done the latter. Some few years ago I became the possessor of a brace of black cockers, the most beautiful little spaniels imaginable. How they were bred I am not aware. This I do know, that wherever they went they were admired more than any other dogs; not in the show ring-they never appeared there-but in the streets and the country generally. At that time |