THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 485 



cocker- spaniels which he kept, that they nev^er failed 

 to jump into his lap and caress him the whole time he 

 stayed. It happened that this man was hitten by a 

 mad dog, and the very first night he came under the 

 influence of the distemper, they all ran away from him 

 to the very top of the garret stairs, barking and howl- 

 ing, and showing signs of distress, and consternation. 

 The man was cured, but the dogs were not reconciled 

 to him for three years afterwards." 



The same author gives the following interesting 

 (though very singular) account of a terrier. 



" At Dunrobin Castle, in Sutherlandshire, the nor- 

 thern seat of the Duke of Sutherland, there was in 

 May, 1820, to be seen a terrier bitch nursing a brood 

 of ducklings. She had had a litter of whelps a few 

 weeks before, which were taken from her and drowned. 

 The unfortunate mother was quite disconsolate till she 

 perceived the brood of ducklings, which she immedi- 

 ately seized, and carried off to her lair, where she re- 

 tained them, following them out and in with the 

 greatest attention, and nursing them, after her own 

 fashion, with the most affectionate anxiety. When 

 the ducklings, following their natural instinct, went 

 into the water, their foster-mother exhibited the ut- 

 most alarm, and as soon as they returned to land, she 

 snatched them up in her mouth and ran home with 

 them. What adds to the singularity of the circum- 

 stance is, that the same animal when deprived of a 

 litter of puppies the following year, seized two cock 

 chickens, which she reared with the like care she be- 

 stowed on her former family. When the young cocks 

 began to try their voices, their foster-mother was as 

 much annoyed as she formerly seemed to be by 

 the swimming of the ducks, and never failed to repress 

 their attempts at crowing. 



