The Scottish Naturalist. 59 



grandest for rock scenery among the voes, or arms of the sea, in 

 Shetland. Mr Robertson resides in one of the more promising 

 localities for discoveries, and it is hoped that his observant eye 

 will yet add other rarities, if not new species, to the British 

 fauna. 



In a second communication, Mr Robertson states — that only 

 two specimens (two Phronimds^ each with its Beroe) were brought 

 to him, in a shell, from Urrafirth ; that the tail of the crustacean 

 was the sole moving power that carried both itself and dwelling 

 round the sides of the vessel ; that the Phronima often left and 

 returned to its Beroe ; that hundreds of them were cast ashore 

 about the same time, January 1880, at Ronas Voe; and that the 

 fishermen saw " a good lot of them " around the mouth of that 

 voe or arm of the sea. 



Birnie, Elgin, 1W1 January 1881. 



Story of a Dog. — Following up the articles which appeared some years 

 ago in this journal, written by Dr L. Lindsay, I beg leave to record certain 

 observations which I have verified in regard to an intelligent collie at present 

 alive in Alyth. He is a dog of the pure collie breed, by name "Towser." 

 His points are somewhat perfect. He is black and tan ; bushy in the hair, 

 marked with a yellow spot above the eyes ; clean in his habits ; neat in 

 form; and, withal, a symmetrical and elegant dog. His age is eight off; 

 and though on the shady side of a dog's life, his master got him when six 

 weeks old. He stands high, is placid and gentle in manner, and rather 

 leans to the side of being timid and shy when in the company of other 

 dogs. He is not pugnacious, and lives a life of forbeai-ance. His mother 

 belonged to the Baronet of Banff, and on his paternal side he linked 

 his genealogy with a collie belonging to a Dundee flesher, whose days 

 had been devoted to the work of shepherding ; and on both sides of 

 the house his progenitors had been given to the trade of a collie — that is to 

 say, his parents had exercised their reasoning or instinctive faculties in work 

 which, for want of a better word, may be called intellectual. At the age of 

 three months Towser gave evidence of adaptation by an incessant inclina- 

 tion to take bonnets off the heads of boys, as also to cany things in his 

 mouth. There was no dog in the house with him or near him, so that Towser's 

 gift was not imitative, but was seemingly that of the poet — nascitur, no n fit. 

 Nor had he any teaching such as is given by a gamekeeper or showman for 

 a special purpose : all his inclinations were his own, and any humouring of 

 these qualities was the result of his own cogitation. The consequence of 

 that intuitive propensity was in the end to make him a first-rate carrier. At 

 an early period of his career he commenced to beg for money — his medium 

 of exchange being, preferably over all others, a halfpenny. When he suc- 

 ceeds in getting this coin, he usually sets off with it to the baker to purchase 

 a biscuit ; and on reaching the shop he raises his fore-feet on to the counter 

 (having first made audible signs at the door if it should be shut), gets his 



