The Scotch Colley. 199 



tion nor upon the terms of an old advertisement. The ploughman-poet of 

 Scotland had plenty of opportunities, and may be allowed to have been 

 a capable observer, and of his own colley he says : 



His breast was white, his toozie back 

 Weel clad wi' coat o' glossy black. 



Strong as I consider the evidence of Burns in my favour, I have still 

 my trump card to play, after which I hope the advocates of the black 

 and tan, and "the fine line down the forehead not amounting to a 

 blaze," will follow the advice of Joey Ladle to the musical party after 

 hearing Madeline sing. 



No less an authority than Dr. Gordon Stables says " the best dogs are 

 tricoloured, black on the body, with tan points, and white collar and chest 

 and forearms, and at times a blaze up the face and white tip to tail." 



I have no prejudice against black and tan, but much prefer the tricolour, 

 and I consider the white ring round the neck very characteristic of the 

 breed, and indeed it seems not improbable that this very usual distinctive 

 mark gave the name of colley to the breed, just as the sweetwilliam is 

 the coll-me-quick of the garden from the ring of colour round its petals. 



To pass on from the consideration of colour, I must say the colley 's 

 head has also been rather badly treated. So long as we had the black and 

 rich orange tan in the ascendant we were bound to have with it with a 

 few exceptional cases the high domed skull and more or less full fore- 

 head ; but having got rid of one evil, there are some judges and writers 

 clamorous to rush us into the opposite excess, and would have triangular 

 heads, with the foreheads planed down to a perfect level and tapering 

 jaws as long as those of a pike. These are some of the exaggerations 

 created and nursed by those who can only take in one point of a dog 

 at a time, and, having to say something, make that one point the all in 

 all of their ephemeral creed. As an instance of the way extremes are 

 run into, this desire for a long head as against the " chumpy " ones of 

 the Gordon setter cross sort, some of the prize winners at the Alexandra 

 Palace Show, July, 1879, had heads as long as deerhounds, and more 

 the shape of a Jargonelle pear than what a colley 's head should be. 



Again, what an outcry there is if a colley is seen to carry his tail over 

 his back when in the ring. What slaps with the chain and covert strokes 

 with the stick the knowing ones give the poor caudal appendage, and all 



