3d 



JOUHNAL OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



nesday and so on. Then the horse 

 took charge in this matter and allow- 

 ed his master to keep to his musings 

 and to the preparation of his ser- 

 mons. When the horse stopped at a 

 house the pastor dismounted, left the 

 horse unhitched, went in and made 

 his call. In due time he came out 

 and mounted, and the horse took him 

 to the next house and so on until the 

 calls were all made when the horse 

 took his rider home in safety. Some- 

 times the doctor saddled his horse, 

 led it up to the front door and went 

 into the house and forgot himself. 

 After waiting a proper time the horse 

 set out alone to make the pastoral 

 calls. It went to all the houses in 

 order, stopping a regular time at each 

 and then returned. This was a de- 

 lightful change to all the boys and 

 girls who could not give their stern 

 pastor a satisfactory account of their 

 state of mind or of their conduct. 

 So the doctor and his horse jogged 

 on, dividing the pastoral duties, until 

 they reached old age with minds un- 

 impaired. 



"The dog," says Baron Cuvier, "is 

 the first, the easiest, the completest, 

 the most singular and the most useful 

 conquest ever made by man." He was 

 man's companion in prehistoric 

 times. He has been his companion 

 in all parts of the world ever inhab- 

 ited by man. It is doubtful if man 

 could have risen above the savage 

 state without the dog. He assisted 

 him in conquering and domesticating 

 the other animals. "Without the 

 shepherd's dog," says Hogg, so well 

 known as the Ettriek Shepherd, "the 

 whole of the mountainous land in 

 Scotland would not be worth a six- 

 pence. It would require more hands 

 to manage a stock of sheep, gather 

 them from the hills, force them into 

 houses and folds and drive them to 

 markets than the profits of the whole 

 stock would be capable of maintain- 

 ing. In the management of sheep a 

 Scotch collie is more than equal to 

 twenty men." In some parts of South 

 America, where there are no shep- 

 herds, dogs act in their place and take 

 charge of the flocks. Thus early in 

 the morning the dogs drive the sheep 

 from the fold, conduct them to the 

 plain, accompany them the whole 

 day and keep them well togeth- 

 er, defending them from beasts 

 of prey, voracious birds and from 



man himself. At sunset they conduct 

 the sheep back again to the fold 

 when they lay themselves down on 

 the ground and pass the night in 

 watchful care. In the Museum at 

 Berne there is the mounted body of a 

 St. Bernard dog celebrated for hav- 

 ing saved forty lives in twelve years. 



Of dogs. Sirrah is one of the best 

 known, not because he was superior 

 in intelligence to any one of a thou- 

 sand others but because his great 

 virtues have been celebrated by his 

 owner, the poet Hogg, in his Shep- 

 herd's Calendar. When Hogg was 

 fifteen years old he was sent with his 

 dog Sirrah on a strange errand. I 

 will allow the poet to relate the 

 incident in his own language. "I 

 was sent to a place in Tweeddale, 

 called Stanhope, to bring back a wild 

 ewe that had strayed from home. 

 The place lay at a distance of fifteen 

 miles and my way to it was over 

 steep hills and athwart deep glens. 

 There was no path and neither Sirrah 

 nor I had ever travelled that way be- 

 fore. When I left the people of the 

 house, Mr. Tweedie, the farmer, said 

 to me, "Do you really suppose that 

 you will drive that sheep over the 

 hills and out through the midst 

 of all the sheep in the coun- 

 try?" I said I would try to do it. 

 "Then let me tell you," said he, "you 

 may as well try to travel to yon sun." 

 Our way, as I said, lay over wild hills 

 and through the middle of flocks of 

 sheep. I seldom got sight of the ewe 

 for she was sometimes a mile before 

 me, sometimes two; but Sirrah kept 

 her in command the whole way, nev- 

 er suffered her to mix with the other 

 sheep, nor, as far as I could judge, 

 ever to deviate twenty yards from the 

 track by which he and I went the day 

 before." Hogg inquired at two shep- 

 herds' cottages whether a dog and a 

 sheep had been seen. They had not. 

 All along the route which the dog and 

 sheep had taken, on both sides, he 

 found the great flocks of sheep quiet 

 and undisturbed. When Hogg reach- 

 ed home there were the dog and 

 sheep lying near each other resting 

 after their long tramp. 



On another occasion Hogg had 

 charge of several hundred lambs. He 

 had only a boy and his dog to assist 

 him. It was necessary to watch the 

 lambs day and night to prevent them 

 from running away in search of their 



