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Show 3/0 DR. VAN DYCK ON SYRIAN STREET-DOGS. [Apr. 18, which may not be found ; and in form, size, and proportions of trunk and limbs, shape of head, form and size of ears, length and closeness of hair, length, bushiness, and carriage of tail there is nearly as much diversity. Twenty years ago but few persons in this city owned dogs of any foreign breed whatsoever; but pointers, poodles, terriers, a few greyhounds and setters, and occasionally Newfoundlands, retrievers, and mastiffs have since been imported, and to some extent bred here. By far the majority of foreign dogs to be found in Beyrout at any time are smaller and decidedly weaker than the original natives ; very few indeed can range the streets unaccompanied by their masters, without running a considerable risk of more or less serious injury from the street-dogs. Despite their marked muscular inferiority, however, the foreign dogs have succeeded in mongrelizing the whole race of street-dogs so thoroughly that it is now no easy matter to find one of these which does not bear unmistakable evidence of a foreign strain. To account for this, I can confidently cite the following facts from my own personal observation and experience :-1st. Native bitches very often manifest a decided preference for certain foreign dogs; and I have repeatedly seen such a bitch reject, one after another, a train of kindred suitors, to accept without hesitation a thorough-bred pointer. M y brother once owned a French pointer named Jack, quite small, but beautifully proportioned, and of a uniform golden fawn colour. This dog was so great a favourite with the opposite sex of the native breed, that he led an exceedingly "gay" life. Pointer bitches, on the contrary, not unfrequently refused him for the sake of a street-dog. 2nd. Pointers and other well-bred bitches are frequently so decided and persistent in their preference for street-dogs (usually for some particular individual, unseen it may be, but communicated with by the voice), that they will go barren whole seasons rather than accept mates chosen for them by their masters. In such cases, a moment's carelessness or inattention is sufficient to ensure a litter of mongrel pups, which, if not destroyed in puppy-hood, are very apt eventually to find their way into the street, there to multiply the chance of infection for the whole race. 3rd. Mongrel strains are most strongly pronounced in the suburbs, where street-dogs are rather less numerous than in the heart of the city, and where sly and runaway matches are favoured by hedgerows, shrubbery, &c. &c. In the city itself, on the contrary, where the chances are ten to one that claims will be settled by the law of battle, the foreign taint is not so evident; indeed a casual observer might easily overlook it in many instances ; and if any pure-blooded representatives of the old stock are still in existence, it must be in the most thickly stocked quarter, where butcher's shops are many and very near together and street-dogs proportionately numerous. |