224: THE SHETLAND SHEEPDOG 



being to prevent the sheep from straying ori to land 

 other than that belonging to their owner, there being 

 no fences as in England. The sheep, too, are small. 

 He further said that men of sixty -five and seventy 

 could remember the dogs from their, youth. Locally 

 they were called Toonies. 



Considering how a severe climate and restricted 

 dietary will tend to reduce the size of any animal 

 in the course of generations, one has not much diffi- 

 culty in believing that the little Shetlander and the 

 larger variety of Collie may come from the same 

 root. Why not? In the ninth edition of the 

 "Encyclopaedia Britannica " (published from 1875 

 to 1889) the Scottish Collie is described as stand- 

 ing from 12 inches to 14 inches high, and I can 

 well recall a charming little bitch some twenty-five 

 years ago that could not have been much above 

 1 6 inches. The shorter heads and more rounded 

 skulls are only what we should expect to see in 

 a dwarf race bred more or less haphazard. When 

 the Shetland Collies were first talked about I sought 

 some information from Mr. Hector Whitehead, of 

 Kingussie, who sent me the photograph of a dog 

 weighing only 9 lb'. In describing their charac- 

 teristics he said: ; * They will clear a garden of 

 hens by rounding up and putting them into their 

 run as scientifically as a Sheepdog would do sheep. 

 In fact, to see * .Olafssen ' slouching along at my 

 heels reminds every one of a Collie after a hard day's 

 work. My hens live in a grass run, and get out 

 into the vegetables sometimes. When they do 

 * Olafssen ' gets to work and drives them all into 

 the corner where the gate is, then lies down and 

 waits for some one to come along who will open 

 the gate." 



