TAIL.-Long, well-feathered, and not gaily carried. HEIGHT.-At shoulder of dogs, from 28 inches upwards; of bitches, from 26 inches upwards. FAULTS.-Head short or thick; too much stop; parti-coloured nose; eyes too wide apart; heavy ears; heavy shoulders; wide chest; "barrel" ribbed; dew claws; elbows turned out; wide behind. The hounds considered most typical in the breed include Champions Velsk, Tsaritsa, Kieff, Statesman, Zeneitra, Volno, Vikhra, and Selwood Olga, and I have selected the first-named for illustration. Ch. Velsk was bred and is owned by H.G. the Duchess of Newcastle. His sire was Korotai, and his dam Ch. Vikhra, and he was whelped in December 1895. He stands 31 inches high, weighs 114 lbs., and is white in colour with silver-grey markings. He has very dark eyes, well carried ears and stern, and is the heaviest coated dog on the show-bench; also the strongest boned. He is absolutely perfect in expression. The photograph is a firstrate one, and shows the dog in his best coat; "but," writes his owner, as nothing in the world is perfect, I should like to see Ch. Velsk a shade shorter in the back, and with a trifle more arch; otherwise I can find no fault." Velsk is the winner of eleven championships and seventy-six first prizes, and has sired an immense number of winning progeny, amongst them being Champions Tatiana, Velsk Votrio, Knois, and Theodora; and he was the sire of the four borzois exhibited with great success by H.M. the Queen in 1903. VOL. II G THE DACHSHUND THE delightful fascination which the dachshund-fancier finds in this quaint, little "badger-dog" (to translate" its name literally), and the enormous popularity it has achieved since its introduction into this country about twenty-five years ago, are the best tributes to its worth. Whilst it is an "acquired taste," and probably "caviare to the general," it is a taste that lingers long. The cult of the curious is oftentimes the most precious, as it is the most enthusiastic, and I should feel inclined to describe the dachshund as the bric-a-brac of dogdom. Not that I would deny his sporting and useful qualities, for he has them in multitude, and blends many of the virtues of the hound and the terrier; but when I look upon him, kept solely for a companion, as he almost always is in England, I must confess, even at the risk of displeasing his devotees, that he seems to me to come quite as much under the category of being a fad as being a fancy. For although an artist friend of mine tells me that he vastly prefers a dachshund for a model to any other dog, I shall still continue to harbour doubts as to whether it is an artistic dog, and regard it more as an individualistic one from my unfascinated point of view. The certificated history of the dachshund does not extend back very far, although some have derived a comforting reflection from the fact that a kindred type of long-bodied, low-legged dog has been found depicted in Egyptian hieroglyphics, as you may see for yourself by taking an observation in the absorbing galleries of the British Museum. But he would be a bold fancier who would link these departed dogs with the dachshund of to-day. There are other dogs with similar formation-notably the turnspit and the basset - hound, to which some would trace the origin of the dachshund from the period of the invasion of Germany by the French in the wars of the seventeenth century. Cuvier and other writers tell us the turnspit was of two descriptions—namely, one with the fore legs crooked, the other with the same members straight; but the heads of both were like the pointer or hound, and both were short-legged, long-backed, strange-looking animals. That description might apply to the dachshund, though it probably would not satisfy the fancier. It is said that there are two types of dachshund : the hound type and the terrier. Only one-the former -is recognised in this country, and Mr. A. C. de Boinville, in a recent exhaustive article on the breed, failed to find any specimen of terrier type to illustrate remarks on the subject. He quoted an amusing retort made by a correspondent in the Live Stock Journal some twenty-three years ago, who, in discussing the suggestion with regard to the controverted hound and terrier type in the dachshund, whereof another correspondent had written, "There is something to settle," capped it with the observation, "Quite right; all socalled terrier-dachshunds should be settled as quickly as possible!" And Mr. de Boinville adds, "After taking great pains to get some German gentlemen whom I know to explain to me the difference between the German dog and my own dogs, I have found it |