hard substance, and those with a good carriage of tail are most liable
to this because in excitement they slash it about, whereas the faulty
position of the tail, curled over the back, insures immunity from
harm.

Until recently British Great Dane breeders and exhibitors have paid
very little attention to colour, on the principle that, like a good
horse, a good Great Dane cannot be a bad colour. The English clubs,
however, have now in this particular also adopted the German standard.
The orthodox colours are brindle, fawn, blue, black, and harlequin.
In the brindle dogs the ground colour should be any shade from light
yellow to dark red-yellow on which the brindle appears in darker
stripes. The harlequins have on a pure white ground fairly large black
patches, which must be of irregular shape, broken up as if they had
been torn, and not have rounded outlines. When brindle Great Danes
are continuously bred together, it has been found that they get
darker, and that the peculiar "striping" disappears, and in that case
the introduction of a good fawn into the strain is advisable. The
constant mating of harlequins has the tendency to make the black
patches disappear, and the union with a good black Great Dane will
prevent the loss of colour.

The following is the official description issued by the Great Dane
Club:--

* * * * *

GENERAL APPEARANCE--The Great Dane is not so heavy or massive as the
Mastiff, nor should he too nearly approach the Greyhound type.
Remarkable in size and very muscular, strongly though elegantly built;