SHEEP-WORRYING DOGS. 311 



them unmercifully with their dead victim. They should of 

 course be severely " rated " at the same time. This method of 

 correction accomplished its object so well with a valuable setter 

 which Mr. Head owned, that ever afterwards the sight of a sheep 

 of any age was so appalling to the dog, that if he met one when 

 out for a walk, he would run back to his kennel with all possible 

 speed. I have also heard that tying the dead lamb or fowl to 

 the collar of a dog and allowing it to remain on until it drop.s 

 off, as a result of putrefaction, is effective. A good old plan 

 with a sheep-worrying dog is to put him into a room or loose 

 box with a combative ram. If we adopt this expedient, we 

 must not repeat the error committed by a Master in confining 

 his hounds along with a fighting ram, who amused himself by 

 playing a game of nine-pins with the hounds as long as the 

 Master was looking on. Happy in the apparent success of 

 the experiment, he went to luncheon, and on his return was 

 shocked to find that the only things which remained of the 

 ram were a pair of horns, a good deal of wool, and a few 

 bones. Any of these corrective methods would of course 

 be useless with a sheep- worry ing sheepdog, unless the 

 animal was to be put to other work. 



I am greatly obliged to Mr. Head for having, on my behalf, 

 made enquiries among his farming friends respecting the 

 manner in which foxes devour young lambs. The results 

 of these investigations, and of his own experience, show 

 that a fox as a rule begins breaking it up at the groin, 

 and pulls out and eats the intestines, of which foxes are 

 particularly fond. Mr. Head found that when he placed 

 butchers' offal near coverts for young cubs, Mrs. Vicky 

 always chose the intestines in preference to other parts for 

 the nourishment of her family. 



An old and very skilful Midland poacher assures me that 

 foxes and badgers, when they seize a lamb, do so, invariably 

 by the muzzle, and not, like dogs, by the throat. He confirms 



