II.  THE IRISH WATER SPANIEL.—­There is only one breed of dog known in these days by the name of Irish Water Spaniel, but if we are to trust the writers of no longer ago than half a century there were at one time two, if not three, breeds of Water Spaniels peculiar to the Emerald Isle.  These were the Tweed Water Spaniel, the Northern Water Spaniel, and the Southern Water Spaniel, the last of these being the progenitors of our modern strains.

The history of the Irish Water Spaniel is in many ways a very extraordinary one.  According to the claim of Mr. Justin McCarthy, it originated entirely in his kennels, and this claim has never been seriously disputed by the subsequent owners and breeders of these dogs.  It seems improbable that Mr. Justin McCarthy can actually have originated or manufactured a breed possessing so many extremely marked differences and divergences of type as the Irish Water Spaniel; but what he probably did was to rescue an old and moribund breed from impending extinction, and so improve it by judicious breeding, and cross-breeding as to give it a new lease of life, and permanently fix its salient points and characteristics.  However that may be, little seems to have been known of the breed before he took it in hand, and it is very certain that nearly every Irish Water Spaniel seen for the last half century owes its descent to his old dog Boatswain, who was born in 1834 and lived for eighteen years.  He must have been a grand old dog, since Mr. McCarthy gave him to Mr. Joliffe Tuffnell in 1849, when he was fifteen years old; and his new owner subsequently bred by him Jack, a dog whose name appears in many pedigrees.

It was not until 1862 that the breed seems to have attracted much notice in England, but in that year the Birmingham Committee gave two classes for them, in which, however, several of the prizes were withheld for want of merit; the next few years saw these dogs making great strides in popularity and, classes being provided at most of the important shows, many good specimens were exhibited.

During the last few years, however, the breed seems to have been progressing the wrong way, and classes at shows have not been nearly so strong, either in numbers or in quality, as they used to be.  Yet there have been, and are still, quite a large number of good dogs and bitches to be seen, and it only needs enthusiasm and co-operation among breeders to bring back the palmiest days of the Irish Water Spaniel.

There is no member of the whole canine family which has a more distinctive personal appearance than the Irish Water Spaniel.  With him it is a case of once seen never forgotten, and no one who has ever seen one could possibly mistake him for anything else than what he is.  His best friends probably would not claim beauty, in the aesthetic sense, for him; but he is attractive in a quaint way peculiarly his own, and intelligent-looking.  In this particular his looks do not bewray him; he is, in fact, one of