THE WEST HIGHLAND WHITE TERRIER. 



395 



Terrier, which at present rules the roost, 

 dates from 1879 as a show dog. 



I therefore earnestly hope that no fancy 

 will arise about these dogs which will 

 make them less hardy, less wise, less com- 

 panionable, less active, or less desperate 

 fighters underground than they are at 

 present. A young dog that I gave to a 

 keeper got its stomach torn open in a 

 fight. It came out of the cairn to its master 

 to be helped. He put the 

 entrails back to the best of 

 his ability, and then the dog 

 slipped out of his hands to 

 finish the fight, and forced 

 the fox out into the open ! 

 That is the spirit of the 

 breed ; but, alas, that cannot 

 be exhibited on the show 

 bench. They do say that 

 a keeper of mine, when 

 chaffed by the " fancy " 

 about the baby faces of his 

 " lot," was dri\-en to ask, 

 " Well, can any of you 

 gentlemen oblige me with a 

 cat, and I'll show you ? " 

 I did not hear him sa^^ it, 

 so it may only be a tale. 



Anyhow, I liave in my 

 kennel a dog who, at ten 

 months old, met a vixen fo.x 

 as she was bolting out of 

 her cairn, and he at once 

 caught her by the throat, 

 stuck to her till the pack 

 came up, and then on till 

 she w^as killed. In the course of one month 

 his wounds were healed, and he had two 

 other classical fights, one with a cat and 

 the other with a dog fox. Not bad for a 

 pup with a " baby face " ? 



I am sorry to say that the foxes about 

 my place are nearly cleared out, but be- 

 tween 1894 and 1899 603 foxes were killed 

 and counted above ground on this property 

 alone. I have not the lists complete for 

 the subsequent years, but we killed 74 fo.xes 

 and four otters between 1902 and 1905. 



In future I must do " tod " hunter for 

 my friends. 



I trust I have not tired my readers, and 

 that they understand that the West High- 

 land \Miite Terriers are not White Aber- 

 deens, not a new invention, but have a 

 most respectable ancestry of their own. I 

 add the formal list of points, but this is 

 the work of show bench experts — and it 

 will be seen from what I have written 

 that I do not agree with them on certain 

 particulars. There should be feather to a 



COLONEL MALCOLMS SONNY 

 BY DOICHIOLL FIORACH. 



fair degree on the tail, but if experts will 

 not allow it, put rosin on your hands and 

 pull the hair out — and the rosin will win youi' 

 prize. The eye should not be sunk, which 

 gives the sulkv look of the "Scotch" Terrier, 

 but should be full and bright, and the ex- 

 pression friendly and confiding. The skull 

 should not be narrow anywhere. It is almost 

 impossible to get black nails in a dog of 

 pure breed and the black soon wears off the 

 pad work, so folk must understand this. On 

 two occasions recently I have shown dogs, 

 acknowledged, as dogs, to be quite first class, 

 "but, you see, they are not the proper" 



