Page:The power of the dog.djvu/54

 the field. A satisfactory ending on the whole, for it would be a thousand pities to rob little Wales of her most typical contribution to the domestic canidæ. She has, too, her Springer and Cocker spaniels, both handsome dogs, but fewer in numbers, and some years ago she had also rough coated hounds, sturdy and hardy, as befitted the nature of the country in which they had to work. Unfortunately, they have practically disappeared.

The fact that the old English and the Welsh terriers displayed similar markings must not be used as an argument capable of being pushed to any great extent, for this is a colour that crops up in most breeds, and is therefore suggestive in many ways. Mr. R. I. Pocock, an authority to whom we must defer with respect, urges that it is potentially present in all, and from this fact he finds justification for the argument in favour of a descent from the wolf and jackal. A comparison will show that the tan on dogs is distributed, with the exception of the spots over the eyes, in a manner precisely identical with the light markings on the wild animals. His conclusion is that the black and tan pattern is a nigrescent variation, saved from being completely melanistic by the pale areas turning tan instead of black like the rest of the body, tan or red in dogs, as in men and other animals, being an intermediate stage in colour between black and white. The point is interesting, especially to bulldog men, who debar a black and tan from winning prizes on the score that the colour denotes a bar