394 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



daily to the cairn hoping against hope. 

 At last one day a pair of bright eyes were 

 seen at the bottom of a hole. They did 

 not disappear when the dog's name was 

 called. A brilliant idea seized one of the 

 keepers. The dog evidently could not get 

 up, so a rabbit skin was folded into a small 

 parcel round a stone and let down by a 

 string. The dog at once seized the situation 

 — and the skin — held on, was drawn up, 

 and fainted on reaching the mouth of the 

 hole. He was carried home tenderly and 

 nursed ; he recovered. 



Some folk may think that I waste too 

 much time over my pets, but really there 

 are some very interesting facts to be made 

 known. I am sure that a great many people 

 did not know that King James sent to 

 Argyllshire when he wanted to send terriers 

 abroad as a present — they must have been 

 noted in those days — and I think I shall 

 win consideration from all lovers of the 

 " earth dogge " when I remind them that 

 Dr. Caius, writing " De Canibus " (1570) in 

 the spacious days of Good Queen Bess, in 

 his classification of dogs, placed the hounds 

 at the head of " the most generous kinds," 

 and at the head of all hounds placed the 

 terrier. 



Another old book speaks of the colour 

 of the terrier as either black or yellow. 



Bell's " Quadrupeds," published 1838, 

 pictures a Scottish Terrier, and says it 

 differs from the other terrier which is 

 pictured — not a bad old type of the English 

 Black-and-tan terrier — in the rough harsh 

 character of the hair, the shortness of the 

 muzzle, the shortness and stoutness of the 

 limbs, and the colour which is generally 

 dirty white, though they vary greatly in 

 this respect. A picture of a very short- 

 faced dog is given. 



But perhaps my best advocate is to be 

 found in the vignette on the title-page of 

 " The Art of Deer-stalking," by WiUiam 

 Scrope, wherein Sir E. Landseer, with deer 

 and other hounds, shows a terrier with 

 drop ears and the short face I plead for 

 [see p. 391). Sir Edwin Landseer for such 

 a picture would have the run of all the 

 best of the Duke of Athol's terriers for 



his model. The date of this vignette 

 is 1839. 



Bewick's " Quadrupeds " (third edition, 

 published in 1792), speaks also of two kinds 

 of terriers — the one rough, short-legged, 

 long-backed, very strong, and most com- 

 monly of a black or yellowish colour, 

 mixed with white. His picture shows a 

 lot of moustache about the mouth in such 

 a way that it must have been a very dis- 

 tinctive feature in those days. 



From these ancient authorities we learn 

 that white or wheaten yellow is not a new 

 thing ; neither is the short face nor the 

 the rough face. The roughness, of course, 

 as in men, increases to a certain extent 

 with age. 



Attention to breeding as to colour has 

 undoubtedly increased the whiteness, but, 

 other points being good, a dog of the West 

 Highland White Terrier breed is not to 

 be rejected if he shows his descent by a 

 slight degree of pale red or yellow on his 

 back or his ears. I know an old Argyllshire 

 family who consider that to improve their 

 terriers they ought all to have browny 

 yellow ears. Neither again, except for 

 the show bench, is there the slightest 

 objection to half drop ears — i.e. the points 

 of one or both ears just falling over. 



Unfortunately, the show bench has a 

 great tendency to spoil all breeds from too 

 much attention being given to what is 

 evident — and ears are grand things for 

 judges to pin their faith to ; also, they 

 greatly admire a fine long face and what 

 is called — but wrongly called — a strong 

 jaw, meaning by that an ugly, heavy face. 

 I have often pointed out that the tiger, 

 the cat, the otter, all animals remarkable 

 for their strength of jaw, have exceedingly 

 short faces, but their bite is cruelly hard. 

 And what, again, could be daintier than 

 the face of a fox ? 



The terrier of the West Highlands of 

 Scotland has come down to the present 

 day, built on what I may perhaps call 

 the fox lines, and it is a type, evolved by 

 work — hard and deadly dangerous work. 

 It is only of late years that dogs have been 

 bred for show. The so-called " Scottish " 



