208 Modern Dogs. 



kept at Newbury, Berks, was one of the gamest 

 little terriers he ever owned, almost too keen, and 

 quite fearless. 



11 I remember turning out a badger to see if 

 Bachelor, when he was under a year old, would seize 

 and hold it. At first they fought until almost tired 

 out, then the dog got the badger by the cheek and 

 there held him until they were both quite exhausted. 

 The badger earths in our Buckinghamshire chalk hills 

 are not large, but run very deep, often i6ft. to i8ft, 

 so one cannot dig, and it is little short of cruelty 

 to put a terrier in, as he may get blocked ; it is 

 too deep to hear a sound, and Irish terriers are not 

 noisy enough, fighting and taking their punishment 

 in silence, nor do they ' bay ' their game like other 

 terriers. I have often run two of my terriers, Boundary 

 and Birthright, into small earths, and found them of 

 no use, as we could not hear where they were, unless 

 the badger grunted or they whined, and they have 

 come out fearfully mauled and bitten. 



" I accounted for one fox with an Irish terrier, and 

 this was by accident, as I did not think the dog 

 would kill it in less than half a minute or so, but he 

 rolled it over, bit it through the brisket, and the fox 

 was dead before I had time to get the dog off. 



" It is in the water that Irish terriers excel, as 

 they take to it as naturally as a duck, and as a 



