In addition to the cases mentioned above, numerous instances have occurred in which the advantages of judging by points, had it been acted upon, would have been made manifest; and in the present absence of all written law in many breeds I do not see how it is possible to prevent the recurrence of such cases. A well-known instance of the difficulties connected with judging by rule of thumb occurred some few years ago in the large pointer bitch class at Birmingham. One of the bitches, which we will call A., had a bad head and very light ears, combined with a strong useful middle, but spoilt by short shoulders. In addition, she had good legs and feet, an elegant stern, well carried, and an absence of quality, her age being eighteen months, when a small bitch is fully developed. Another, B., showed a better head, but inferior legs and feet, a coarse stern, and a heavy, lumbering middle. A third, C, exhibited a magnificent head, beautiful ears, capital legs and feet, fine stern, good shoulders, with great liberty of action; but these fine points were counterbalanced by a deficient girth of chest, for which, being only twelve months old, some considerable allowance should be made, the judges having a statement of the age of each animal on their books for this special purpose.

Here, then, was a case of some difficulty, and though I do not agree with the award, I by no means assert that it was decidedly wrong. But, supposing, for the sake of argument, the pointer were said to have five properties, viz., 1, head and neck; 2, legs and feet;

3, body; 4, stern; 5, quality and coat; and that to each of these were allotted the following proportion of points, viz., head and neck, 30; legs and feet, 24; body 20; stern, 16; quality and coat, 10 - total, 100; the judge (being provided with books for the purpose, with the number and age of the entries duly written in) would only have to insert under each property such a number as would mark the degree of approximation to perfection - this being represented by the maximum figure given at the head of each column.

Class 27.

Had such a plan been adopted - and I can conceive nothing more simple or easy to carry out - the dogs A., B., and C. would have been placed in the order 5,1, and 2, whereas the awards were given in the order the dogs stand on the lists. At present the judges make their notes opposite each entry, but they are so indefinite that afterwards it is necessary that all the animals likely to take a prize shall be compared together at the same time - a far more tedious operation than that which requires them to be carefully examined only once. I do not for a moment assume that the numbers I have attached to each property are correctly apportioned, or that I should have carried them out in practice exactly in the manner I have indicated for the three pointers; I only contend that, supposing the judges to be each furnished with a book containing definitions of a similar nature for their guidance, they would have far less difficulty in deciding than at present, while the public would be able to ascertain the reasons which guided them, and would know what to expect in sending their animals to a show. It will no doubt take some time to settle finally the relative value of the head as compared with the locomotive organs, in the several breeds of dogs, for they vary in almost all.

Thus the pointer, however well formed in his back, chest, and shoulders, is perfectly useless unless he has a head which will not only contain a good brain, but also sensitive olfactory organs. So, also, with the feet and legs; unless these are capable of sustaining work equally with the back, chest, and shoulders, the latter, however good, are thrown away. The National Dog Club, however, in 1869, made the attempt, which, though it was somewhat hastily and carelessly carried out, has served as a very useful foundation for subsequent labours in the same field. Unfortunately, only a portion of the judges at their Islington show carried out their code of points into practice, great difficulties being thrown in their way by the paucity of attendants, and the distance between the benches and the field in which all the dogs were led out. On the whole, however, this first attempt on the large scale to combine public judging with the aid of a scale of points was eminently successful, but, nevertheless, it has not been followed to the full extent at any other exhibition.

The Birmingham council, in spite of the strenuous efforts of Mr. Murchison, have steadily opposed these innovations, and their only concession has been to guarantee that every dog shall be seen by the judges off the bench to which he is chained. In the series of articles now published I have introduced the points adopted by the several special clubs, with short alterations where I think them needed, as in the case of the bulldog, but still they must have the authority of some generally recognised body before they can be made imperative on judges.

In 1869, a great improvement on the then existing mode of judging by points was suggested - by a correspondent in the Field, who was a noted breeder of mastiffs, and as his letter contains the whole of the argument, stated in a clear and convincing manner, I reproduce it at length.

"Sir, - Although I believe it to be most desirable that the judges at our dog shows should be guided in their awards by a settled standard of points and marks, it will, I believe, be found in practice very difficult, if even possible, to give satisfaction by this method, unless some such plan as I venture to suggest be followed.

" In order to have a claim to be classed as a prize dog, it seems to me that an animal ought to be fairly good in every point, and the plan of judgment I would suggest, which is adopted from the method often followed in scholastic examinations, is this: Presupposing that every point in the a.nima1 ought to be fairly good, the positive marks scored in the dog's favour would represent degrees of excellence. Should, however, the animal under judgment be notably deficient in any particular point, I consider that not only should no positive marks be allotted for this particular point, but negative marks should be given to it in proportion as the point in question fell below fairly good.

"Possibly the system may be already followed, but if not, I think it would be found to work fairly and well. The book put into the hands of the judges would run thus:

"It might in practice be found advisable that the negative marks should never exceed the possible positive marks in number; or, again, that an animal notably deficient in any one special characteristic of his breed would be considered disqualified.

"These are, however, minor points; but I hope and think that the principle I suggest, unless it has already been thought of, may be found practical and useful. "Mastiff".

"April 3,1869.

This suggestion removed the only objection in my mind to the plan of judging by points, and with its aid every animal shown, whether horse, dog, poultry, bird, or pigeon, should, I think, be judged. I have endeavoured to persuade the managers of the various shows to adopt this amended system, but hitherto without success. Still, as it is never too late to mend, and as I am convinced that, sooner or later, it must come into use, I give a specimen table of an open class of large pointers, with the points filled up of half a dozen selected specimens, between which it is obvious to the judges the three prizes given must rest. Of course it would be an enormous sacrifice of time to set down the points of the whole of the above class, but an experienced judge can readily point out four, five, or six, as the case may be, all of which may be carefully "pointed," as is shown in the following table, which is supposed to be a copy of a page of the judge's book filled up. In this way I believe that time may be saved rather than wasted, as I have found that the fixing on the numerical value of the several points is much easier than the judging two nearly equal dogs on their general merits.