Colour: black and tan is the most ancient and legitimate colour of the class; but this colour is not so constant as to prevent the accidental appearance of a puppy whose colour varies into any tinge or shading, produced by combination, separation, or blending of the black ground colour and the tan of the marks - such as blacky chocolate, light brown, and hare-pied with blackish ears and dark stripes along the back, either whole coloured or with tan marks. Sometimes the colour of the marks (tan) appears alone, and produces the "whole-coloured tan," with all its varieties of shading through red, ochre, fawn, and sandy. In all the darker varieties of the black-tan dog the nose and nails should be perfectly black, and even in the brightest whole or self-coloured tan, fawn, and sandy dogs, they should be at least as dark as possible. Rosy or fleshy noses and nails indicate that there is white in the breed; they cannot be excused by the colour of the coat - not even in whole-coloured tan and sandy dogs - or else the nails in the tan-coloured paws of our black-tan dogs must also be changed into fleshy or horn-coloured ones. Besides, the original ground colour of the dog is black, and will appear again sooner or later in the whole-coloured tan offspring.

The extension and design of the marks in black-tan dachshunds is nearly the same as in the English terrier. The tan of the cheek should not be divided in dachshunds, but ascend abruptly towards the jaw-muscle, so as to give the eye the appearance as if it was surrounded beneath by a black semi-circle. On the hind legs the tan is not limited to the inside of the legs, but extends over the whole front of them, and the half outside of the feet; from hock to heel runs a black stripe. Pencilled toes in the forefeet are nothing else but the imperfect repetition of this black stripe, both according pretty well to the position and bending of the extremities during the embryonal state of the dog. (The tan marks seem to be limited chiefly to those parts which are covered and pressed by the bending of the extremities in the embryo.) Pencilled toes appear and disappear in black-tan puppies of any breed in Germany; therefore they cannot be regarded as indicating a "terrier cross" in dachshunds, the English terrier being quite an unknown animal in many of those remote places in Germany where good dachshunds are bred. On the forearm and the under-thigh the black melts gradually into the tan; but on all other parts of the body the two colours should be divided distinctly, and without any blending.

White toes, and indeed white anywhere, are great blemishes; but there are few black-tan dachshunds to be found without having at least a small greyish tuft of hair on the breast-bone, or a narrow line along the brisket, which is only to be seen when the dog is sitting on his haunches.

More rarely met with are the bluish alterations of the black-and-tan (for instance, slate-grey, mouse, silvery-grey, and the "tigerdachs"), which are all to be regarded as a more or less "imperfect albinism" originating in want of pigment in the hair. The "tigerdachs" is nothing else but a black-tan dog whose ground colour is altered only on some parts of the coat into a bluish tinge, while other parts have preserved the original ground colour ("partial imperfect albinism"), and form now irregular black or brown stripes and blotches. None of these bluish varieties can be regarded as a distinct breed, nor are they only limited to the dachshund class.* Nose and nails of the bluish varieties are dark, fleshy, even rosy or black-spotted, as the ground colour of the coat has been altered more or [less. The eyes are bluish, or quite colourless (wall-eyed). All these bluish dogs should have no white marks, except the tiger-dacha, which should be as variegated as possible, and therefore white on the breast and belly of these dogs is no blemish; but they should not have white toes or white marks on the head, body, nor end of stern.

White, as a ground colour, with hound-like blotches, spotted or mottled, is much disliked by most of our breeders; and these colours should disappear entirely from the dachshund class, and be limited to the basset and the various "dachsdracken," White dachshunds are kept and bred as a curiosity, and the origin of most of them is very dubious. The only reason for breeding them is that white dogs are easier kept in sight when hunting a covert. But the qualification for hunting above ground is not at all the criterion of the dachshund class.

* The bluish colours are to be found among all possible breeds of German dogs which are not crossed too much, and even in black cats. A beautiful specimen of a tiger-dachs-coloured colley I saw at Kyle-Rhea, near Skye, in September, 1874.

The legitimate colours of the dachshund may be divided into four groups: -

1. With tan marks: Black, chocolate, light brown, hare-pied; the brighter varieties often showing a blackish stripe along the back, and black ears; eyes, rich brown, never brighter than the tan marks; nose and nails black; no white.

2. Whole coloured: Black, chocolate, light brown, hare-pied; and also the tan varieties, red, tan, ochre, fawn, sandy; the brighter varieties often with a darker stripe along the back; ears and muzzle also often darker than the body; no tan marks; eyes, rich brown or light brown, never brighter than the colour of the coat; nose and nails, black, no white. In bright tan and sandy dogs the nose and nails should be at least much darker than the coat, and never fleshy.

3. Bluish varieties: Slate, mouse, silver-grey, either whole coloured or with tan marks; eyes, bluish or colourless (wall-eyed); nose and nails blackish, fleshy, rosy; no white.