Terriers are used in digging out badgers, being sent to earth after them, where the dog, if an adept at his work, keeps on baying the badger, thus intimating the position of the quarry to the diggers, who, with ears to the ground, constantly listen that they may know from the sounds where dog and badger have shifted to. It is no easy task for the dog; for the badger, provident against dangers, constructs his earthworks on scientific principles, and has chamber after chamber into which he can retire as he is fought - first out of one and then another. These earths are often constructed among roots of aged trees, and in rocky ground, which makes it difficult for dog and digger combined to dislodge him; and when in light, sandy soil, the badger, borson, bawsind, grey, or brock - for by all these names is he designated - is said to be able to dig his way into new ground as fast as two men with spades can clear the earth to follow him. There is no better dog for badger-hunting than a Bull-terrier, if well entered.

The Bull-terrier, as a breed, seems to have been established towards the end of the eighteenth century. Taplin says : " Terriers have, by the lower classes, for the purpose of badger-baiting, been bred in-and-in with the Bulldog, which has enlarged them and increased their natural ferocity."

Although descended from the dogs referred to, our modern Bull-terrier is much changed for the better, in both appearance and manners. Dog-shows have undoubtedly done much to make the breed respectable, and the well-built, strong, yet active, pure white Terrier, with black eyes and nose, is quite a gentlemanly fellow by comparison with the limping, pied or brindle-and-white, blear-eyed, and face-scarred companions of the Bill Sykes of a past generation.

Mr. W. J. Tredinnick, well known at one time as a breeder of these Terriers, says : " The Bull-terrier, like all other breeds of dogs, has been greatly improved in general appearance, since dog shows have become so general, for now, instead of having a variety of types. colours, and sizes, some of which were far from prepossessing in appearance, we have one recognised type and colour, which has found favour with many gentlemen who would never think of possessing a specimen of the smut, brindle, or patched varieties. The late James Hinks, Birmingham, will long be remembered as one who did more than any other individual to improve the Bull-terrier, and many of our best specimens bear testimony to that fact, as they date from his strain. There are two strains that breeders go back to for pedigree - one known as that of a celebrity called Madman, and the other Old Victor, both of which passed through the hands of the late Mr. Hinks; but the latter is the fashionable blood of the day."

Although there is a big substratum of truth underlying what Mr. Tredinnick says above, yet the writer is of opinion that classes might very well be provided for "Bull-terriers Other than White," so long as the dogs were typical of the variety. At the present day, however, it is the opinion of the best judges of the variety that if the United Kingdom could be scoured, it would not be possible to find half a dozen Bull-terriers other than white (marked white ones are of course excepted, as there are plenty of those) up to show form.

In reference to colour, it may be observed that the rule to exclude all but white dogs from the prize list has not been absolute. For instance, Young Victor, the son of Old Victor, and the champion dog of his day, had a brindle-marked cheek, and was known as the "patched dog" and the "marked-eyed dog"; and since his time a similarly marked and excellent Bull-terrier, owned by Mr. Battersby, of Durham, and also named Victor, has won many prizes at North-country shows. Young Victor, the patched dog, was maliciously poisoned at Hull Show, 1877, where he had taken first prize. Other patched dogs that have received awards might also be mentioned.

The pedigrees of Bull-terriers are a subject of confusion which even a Highland seer might be pardoned for failing to unravel. The pedigree of the champion dog Como (K.S.C.B. 19,314) is given simply to point out how meaningless and misleading it is: -

We have Hinks's Dutch (13,813), a bow-legged dog, that was not entered in the Kennel Club Stud Book until he was about six years old, and had won, through his progeny, the prize as best stud dog of his breed, at Aston Show, 1883. The Kennel Club Stud Book gives the age of Dutch as about six years, and his sire as Old Victor. Now, the Old Victor of the Stud Book is No. 2,791, and he died in 1872, six years before Dutch was whelped. The dam of Dutch is, on the same authority, stated to be Hartley's Champion Countess. If this is the bitch entered 6,600 in the Stud Book in Mr. Hartley's name, she was whelped 1874, and is, as given in the table, by Young Gambler out of Old Daisy. Now, there are three bitches named Daisy, all Hinks's property, and bred by him - K.C.S.B. 2,801, 2,802, and 2,803 - all whelped in 1866, and out of Old Daisy; and it is highly improbable that the same Old Daisy had a litter in 1866 and another in 1874. Moreover, Daisy (2,801) is said to be by Turk (2,782), and the date of that dog's birth is stated to be 1866, the same year as that of his daughter Daisy - not impossible, but most improbable. Then Daisy (2,802), whelped 1868, is said to be by Hinks's Madman, and that dog is in the Kennel Club Stud Book 2,740, whelped in 1862, and a 151b. dog, and he had for his great-granddam Old Daisy.

The names Madman, Victor, Prince, Puss, Daisy, occur very often; and as the pedigrees of Bull-terriers are given in the Kennel Club Stud Book, it is often quite impossible to identify the dogs - and, in fact, instead of the clearness and certainty essential to the value of a pedigree, we have a mass of statements alike confusing and contradictory. For the past ten or twelve years breeders of repute have been more particular, and pedigrees are now fairly well kept.