Lastly, as to the mouth. A level mouth should be a sine qua non, and an undershot dog, or one that is much overshot, should be disqualified. The term undershot, it may be explained for the novice's benefit, is applied to dogs whose lower jaw projects beyond the upper one; and overshot when the reverse obtains. White teeth should be found, and young dogs at any rate should be penalised for not possessing them.

Neck should be clean and muscular, without throatiness, of fair length, and gradually widening to the shoulders.

Shoulders should be fine at the points, long, and sloping. The chest deep, and not broad.

Back should be short, straight, and strong, with no appearance of slackness behind the shoulders ; the loin broad, powerful, and very slightly arched. The dog should be well ribbed up with deep back ribs and should not be flat-sided.

Hindquarters should be strong and muscular, quite free from droop or crouch ; the thighs long and powerful ; hocks near the ground, the dog standing well up on them like a Foxhound, without much bend in the stifles.

Stern should be set on rather high, and carried gaily ; but not over the back, or curled. It should be of good strength, anything approaching a pipe-stopper tail being especially objectionable.

A "pipe stopper tail" is as inelegant as it must be to the majority obscure. Nowadays it is the fashion to allow a much longer stern than was the case years ago, and it is an improvement, providing the set-on be accurate, as it gives the dog, a far smarter appearance.

Legs, viewed in any direction, must be straight, showing little or no appearance of ankle in front. They should be large in bone throughout, the elbows working freely just clear of the side. Both fore and hind legs should be carried straight forward in travelling, the stifles not turning outwards. The feet should be round, compact, and not too large ; the toes moderately arched, and turned neither in nor out. There should be no dew-claws behind.

"The legs, viewed in any direction, must be straight, showing little or no appearance of ankle in front." From the context the fore legs are evidently here referred to. Though the writer is not of those who think that the average Fox-terriers of to-day are one whit behind the old-time Kennel Terriers as regards pluck, yet he is of those who think that by breeding the former so long upon the leg much of their utility has been sacrificed. It is quite impossible for a big, long-legged dog to negotiate small drains, and plenty of instances have occurred where such an animal has been "stuck up" in an attempt to do so.

The Coat should be smooth, but hard, dense, and abundant.

Colour

White should predominate. Brindle, red, or liver markings are objectionable. Otherwise this point is of little or no importance.

Colour is frequently a puzzle to the beginner, who is usually in doubt as to how far a judge's opinion would be influenced thereby. Generally the most taking-looking dog as regards colour is the one with a black-and-tan marked head and a white body. Yet the only time when colour would be seriously considered is when, say, two or three dogs of very equal merit were left in a competition. Suppose say that one all white, a heavily patched dog, and a black-and-tan headed one are so evenly matched as regards Fox-terrier points that colour alone can decide the question. In such a case the judge would doubtless decide in favour of the last named. A black-and-tan marked dog has a more business-like look than an all white one; but this, of course, is an individual opinion. The objection to brindle markings are readily accounted for, as they betoken a remote cross.

Symmetry, Size, And Character

The dog must present a generally gay, lively, and active appearance. Bone and strength in a small compass are essentials ; but this must not be taken to mean that a Fox-terrier should be "cloggy," or in any way coarse. Speed and endurance must be looked to as well as power, and the symmetry of the Foxhound taken as a model. The Terrier, like the Hound, must on no account be leggy ; neither must he be too short in the leg. He should stand like a cleverly made hunter - covering a lot of ground, yet with a short back, as before stated. He will thus attain the highest degree of propelling power, together with the greatest length of stride that is compatible with the length of his body. Weight is not a certain criterion of a Terrier's fitness for his work. General shape, size, and contour are the main points ; and if a dog can gallop and stay, and follow his fox, it matters little what his weight is to a pound or so, though, roughly speaking, it may be said that he should not scale over 2olb. in show condition.

Since that good all-round dog-judge and sportsman Mr. S. E. Shirley, at the Fox-terrier Club's Show at Cheltenham, in 1901, showed a marked partiality for a smaller type of dog, size, always more or less a vexed question, has been continuously exercising the minds of the leading lights in the Fox-terrier Fancy. The writer is of opinion that the average show Fox-terrier is far too large and too leggy to figure as a workman. To strike the happy medium is not perhaps so easy as it seems. If, however, an attempt were made to breed a Fox-terrier that, while it did not scale above 16 lb. or 181b., yet had plenty of bone and the requisite gameness, the difficulty that at present exists with the large dog of not being able to take a small covered drain would be non-existent. No one, of course, would advocate the very small Fox-terrier, which is just as objectionable as the big leggy dogs, with their abnormally narrow skulls and Whippet-like fronts.

In adopting a standard of excellence, the Club obeyed a law of necessity. In such breeds as Greyhounds, the standard of excellence is judged from a performance in the course; and how such practical standard keeps a breed true to its original is seen in the result, for, the animal pursued, and the laws and circumstances regulating the course, having remained unchanged, the Greyhound of to-day corresponds to the description written of him nearly 2,000 years ago. In competitive exhibitions the dogs are placed in order of merit according to the opinions and judgment and, it may even be, the prejudices of the individual judge. The wisdom, therefore, of the Fox-terrier Club in setting up a standard by which varying estimates of the merits of dogs may be dispassionately gauged is apparent.