132 The Collie or Sheep Dog. 



sheep lost and covered over in snow drifts are liable to 

 become sheep worriers, and in the summer months are 

 the devourers of those poor creatures of whom they may 

 have been the saviours during the winter. This may be so, 

 but personally I have traced many cases which undoubtedly 

 arise from the causes I have already named. If sheep- 

 worrying collies were confined only to those that had an 

 opportunity of saving lives in the snow, they would not 

 have been nearly so numerous as was the case twenty or 

 thirty years ago. Farmers and shepherds take care to bury 

 their dead lambs and sheep nowadays. 



When the sheep dog does become a confirmed sheep 

 killer, his sagacity is apparent in a remarkable degree. 

 Mr. W. Dickinson, in " Cumbriana," gives some interesting 

 notes on this 'subject. He says: " The sheep dog is 

 entitled to the credit of being the cleverest of the dog 

 tribe, as a sheep destroyer, for he goes about his work 

 more cunningly than any other of his race, and is seldom 

 found out before much harm is done. In cases many 

 months have elapsed before the culprit is detected, so 

 wary has he been in all his proceedings. He takes his 

 victim by the throat, overturns, and throttles it at once. 

 He is seldom known to worry near home, or among the 

 flock of his owner. When once blooded, he will sneak 

 two or three miles away in the dark to a strange flock, and 

 will sometimes entice a youngster with him, both attacking 

 the same sheep ; the older animal at the throat, the younger 

 wherever it can lay hold of. In its excitement the young 

 dog is apt to give an occasional bark, but the older one 

 never barks at all. 



" The sheep dog usually begins his sport about midnight, 

 and after a lively hour or so of destructive amusement, rolls 



