THE SOUTHDOWN SHEPHERD 195 



on the cliffs at Beachy Head, lying on ledges before their 

 inaccessible breeding-places, in the face of the chalk. 



At present he did not think there were more than two 

 there. They ascended and descended the cliff with ease, 

 though not, of course, the straight wall or precipice. He 

 had known them fall over and be dashed to pieces, as 

 when fighting on the edge, or in winter by the snow 

 giving way under them. As the snow came drifting 

 along the summit of the Down it gradually formed a 

 projecting eave or cornice, projecting the length of the 

 arm, and frozen. 



Something like this may occasionally be seen on houses 

 when the partially melted snow has frozen again before 

 it could quite slide off. Walking on this at night, when 

 the whole ground was white with snow, and no part could 

 be distinguished, the weight of the fox as he passed a 

 weak place caused it to give way, and he could not save 

 himself. Last winter he had had two lambs, each a 

 month old, killed by a fox which ate the heads and left 

 the bodies ; the fox always eating the head first, severing 

 it, whether of a hare, rabbit, duck, or the tender lamb, 

 and "covering " digging a hole and burying that which 

 he cannot finish. To the buried carcase the fox returns 

 the next night before he kills again. 



His dog was a cross with a collie : the old sheep-dogs 

 were shaggier and darker. Most of the sheep-dogs now 

 used were crossed with the collie, either with Scotch or 

 French, and were very fast too fast in some respects. 

 He was careful not to send them much after the flock, 

 especially after feeding, when, in his own words, the 

 sheep had " best walk slow then, like folk " like human 

 beings, who are not to be hastened after a meal. If he 

 wished his dog to fetch the flock, he pointed his arm in 

 the direction he wished the dog to go, and said, " Put 



