NATURAL ENEMIES OF SHEEP SHEEP-DOGS. 303 



cubs, but every lamb which she can manage to get hold of, 

 leaving the bodies on the ground, or slightly concealing them. 



I imagine that all animals who, like foxes, hide a part of 

 their prey, only return to this reserve of food in the case of 

 their not being successful in their hunting for fresh game. 

 All hiding birds and animals prefer feeding on a newly-killed 

 prey, the blood of which is still warm. Sometimes, if driven 

 by hunger or unsuccessful hunting, they return immediately 

 and dig up what they had laid by : sometimes several days 

 elapse before they return, and often the hidden bodies are 

 never revisited at all. 



Eagles kill a considerable number of lambs, carrying them 

 up to their eyrie without, difficulty ; indeed a good shepherd, 

 if he does his duty by his master, has constant employment 

 in watching and guarding his charge. Without the aid of his 

 dogs the best shepherd would be perfectly helpless on our 

 extensive mountain ranges ; in fact, without sheep-dogs the 

 sheep would, in spite of all the shepherd's exertions, be 

 everywhere, anywhere, nowhere : we should have to give up 

 eating mutton, or to stalk and shoot the sheep like red deer. 

 This is not a fanciful assertion, but would absolutely be the 

 case. The very great sagacity of these dogs in their own line 

 of business is perfectly astonishing ; and I have frequently 

 given up an hour or two of my grouse shooting to watch the 

 manoeuvres of a shepherd and his dogs, and have thought the 

 time well bestowed. 



Some of the breeds of the Scotch sheep-dog have a very 

 strong resemblance to the wolf, so much so as to lead one to 

 adopt the theory that the domestic dog, notwithstanding all 

 its varieties of size, shape, and disposition, is derived origin- 

 ally from this animal. The wild dogs of Africa and India, 

 who in packs hunt down the larger wild animals, and are 

 said to worry to death even the lion and tiger, are adduced 

 as disproving this supposition. But these wild dogs do not 

 appear to be the indigenous and native denizens of the 

 wilderness, but to have originated from domestic dogs who, 

 having become ownerless, had turned wild. Although we all 

 know that the wolf can seldom be tamed, some few well- 

 authenticated instances prove that this animal sometimes 

 entirely throws aside its natural bloodthirsty disposition. In 

 the Edinburgh Zoological Gardens there is a fine large wolf 

 who shows as unmistakable signs of gratitude and pleasure 

 at being caressed as any spaniel could do. 



