250 Modern Dogs. 



bones and meat of wild ducks or wood pigeons and 

 other birds that every other kind of dog, however 

 hungry, rejects with disgust. In fact, in many 

 respects their habits resemble those of wild animals. 

 They always are excellent swimmers, taking the water 

 quietly and fearlessly when very young." 



My favourite author then proceeds to write of 

 their use in taking his master quickly up to a 

 wounded deer, but, irrespective of the latter, no 

 one can say that St. John's description does not 

 altogether tally with that of the Scotch terrier. It 

 is nearly twenty years since the late Captain Mackie 

 gave me a small, semi-prick eared dog he had got 

 from the north of Scotland, from which the above 

 description might have been taken. It ran at 

 times on three legs, was slow to be the aggressor, 

 but was a terrible punisher for a fourteen pound dog 

 when he did start ; and he, too, was at times shy and 

 reserved, and would eat grouse and pigeon as freely 

 as he would any butchers' meat. 



Long before I owned this dog a friend of mine 

 had a similar one sent out of Caithness-shire, which 

 was called a " Skye terrier," but again he turned out 

 to be just a Scottish little fellow, short on the legs, 

 hard in coat, and as game as possible. Both these 

 were brown brindles in colour, which I fancy were at 

 that time more plentiful than the black brindles or 



