автор(ы): Shaw, Vero Kemball

As in former works relating to dogs but small attention has been devoted by the authors to the modes of classification adopted by the earlier writers on the subject, a brief notice of the principal cannot but be of interest. As to later works, in several encyclopaedias there has been an attempt made to classify the different varieties, but such classification has, so far as our observation carries us, invariably been founded on the structural development of the different breeds alone, and aot unfrequently on comparison with the characteristics of other animals, little or no attention having been paid to the various temperaments and capabilities of the several breeds. Visitors to the great shows of the present day, on the contrary, must be struck by the extreme simplicity of the arrangement of the catalogues, which invariably divide the candidates into two divisions, namely, one for sporting, and one for non-sporting dogs. In our opinion this is an ample distinction, for all practical purposes ; since in the present day, in consequence of dogs being so much better understood than they formerly were, the uses and capabilities of each breed are well appreciated by those at all interested in them. Moreover, the large increase in the number of breeds (owing to the manufacture of so many new varieties of late years) has rendered an elaborate classification undesirable, as being likely to complicate instead of facilitating the task of distinguishing between the various breeds.

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