Other Terriers. 381 



feature he possessed was an enormous quantity of 

 hair and jacket about his neck ; I never saw a terrier 

 that had so much, and it is to be regretted that this 

 leading and protective characteristic of the working 

 terrier is lost sight of almost entirely nowadays. I 

 rather fancy Spring had some of the Elterwater 

 strain in him, but, his education being conducted by 

 a gamekeeper and rabbit catcher, it was as the latter 

 he excelled. On an occasion, specially invited to 

 witness Spring's excellence at rabbiting, in one 

 afternoon he caught no fewer than twenty-four 

 rabbits on their " forms," or seats, and the two guns 

 had not opportunity to shoot more than a dozen in 

 addition. This was on wildish, semi-cultivated 

 ground, where the rabbits either sat in tufts and 

 bunches of dead grass or underneath small bushes. 

 I do not know whether it is an unusual gift, possessed 

 by some terriers, to be able to distinguish a hare 

 from a rabbit, but about the same time that Spring 

 was in his hey-day, an old gamekeeper in Westmore- 

 land had a yellow terrier that would not follow a 

 hare a yard. On the contrary, after a rabbit he 

 would go until, without fail, the latter was either 

 caught or run to ground. This terrier was a 

 murderous sort of creature, his wide chest and broad 

 skull denoted a cross of the bulldog, which he 

 undoubtedly possessed, and his fighting propensities 



