truding butcher boys and officious
postmen. These characteristics come from his sense of duty, which is
strongly developed, and careful training will make him discriminative
in his assaults.

Very justly is he classed among the sporting dogs. He is a born
sportsman, and of his pluck it were superfluous to speak. Fear is
unknown to him. In this characteristic as in all others, he is truly
a son of Erin.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE WELSH TERRIER

This breed is near akin to the wire-hair Fox-terrier, the principal
differences being merely of colour and type. The Welsh Terrier is
a wire-haired black or grizzle and tan. The most taking colouring
is a jet black body and back with deep tan head, ears, legs, belly,
and tail. Several specimens have, however, black foreheads, skulls,
ears, and tail, and the black will frequently be seen also extending
for a short way down the legs. There must be no black, however, below
the hock, and there must be no substantial amount of white anywhere;
a dog possessing either of these faults is, according to the recognised
standard of the breed, disqualified. Many of the most successful bench
winners have, nevertheless, been possessed of a little white on the
chest and even a few hairs of that colour on their hind toes, and,
apparently, by the common consent of all the judges of the breed,
they have been in nowise handicapped for these blemishes.

There are not so many grizzle coloured Welsh Terriers now as there
used to be. A grizzle and tan never looks so smart as a black and
tan; but though this is so, if the grizzle is of a dark hard colour,
its owner should not be handicapped as against a black and tan; if,
on the contrary, it is a washed-out, bluish-looking grizzle, a judge
is entitled to handicap its possessor, apart altogether from the fact
that any such colour on the back is invariably accompanied by an
objectionable light tan on the legs, the whole being a certain sign
of a soft, silky, unterrierlike coat.

The coat of the Welsh Terrier slightly differs from that of the
wire-hair Fox-terrier in that it is, as a rule, not so abundant, and
is, in reality, a different class of coat. It is not so broken as
is that of the Fox-terrier, and is generally a smoother, shorter coat,
with the hairs very close together. When accompanied with this there
is a dense undercoat, one has, for a terrier used to work a good deal
in water, an ideal covering, as waterproof almost as the feathers
o