THE COLLEY. 129 



more for animals good-looldng enough to take a prize at our shows. 

 For this kind of colley, beauty of form and a brilliant black coat 

 are the chief requisites, and these are greatly aided by the cross 

 with the Gordon setter ; that is to s ly, without any consideration 

 for the purposes to whic-i Jvs dog was originally bred, and is stiH 

 extensively used. The pet colley, not being exposed to weather 

 is quite as useful to his master with an open setter coat and feath- 

 ered legs ; while regarded from an artistic point of view he is 

 more handsome from the superior brilliancy of his color, and from 

 the addition of feather. His ears, when thus bred, are, however, 

 seldom good, being neither pricked like the colley's, nor falling 

 close like the setter's ; and this is the chief objection to the cross 

 from the pet dog point of view, though no doubt it is and has been 

 easily bred out by careful selection. Moreover, if a pet is wanted 

 solely as such, the Gordon setter in his purity is a handsomer dog 

 than the colley, with a more pettable disposition, and it would be 

 better to select him accordingly. 



In Scotland and the north of England, as well as in Wales a 

 great variety of breeds is used for tending sheep, depending- 

 greatly on the locality in which they are employed, and on the 

 kind of sheep adopted in it. The Welsh sheep is so wild that he 

 requires a faster dog than even the Highlander of Scotland, while 

 in the lowlands of the latter country a heavier, tamer, and slower 

 sheep is generally introduced. Hence it follows that a different 

 dog is required to adapt itself to these varying circumstances, and 

 it is no wonder that the strains are as numerous as they are. In 

 Wales there is certainly, so far as I know, no special breed of 

 sheep-dog, and the same may be said of the north of England, 

 where, however, the colley (often improperly called Scotch), more 

 or less pure, is employed by nearly half the shepherds of that dis- 

 trict, the remainder resembling the type known by that name in 

 many respects, but not all. For instance, some show a total 

 absence of " ruff" or " frill ;" others have an open coat of a pied 

 black and white color, with a setter shaped body ; while others, 

 again, resemble the ordinary drover's dog in all respects. But, 

 %ithout doubt, the modern " true and accepted " colley ^hs been 



