TERlUEltS ] 



rOK 3U)UNTA1X, 111: LI), AM) KAK.M. 



[iJiUUlEliS. 



legs of a light or palish tan colour. It is con- 

 sidered the second variety of the Scotch terrier, 

 and is famous for the destruction of vermin, 

 lu Blackwood's Afa>/n:ine, a real Skye terrier 

 is thus described : — " A mouth, the roof whereof 

 is dark as midnight ; his glittering eyes are 

 black as jot ; his ears sliort ; his legs none of 

 the longest ; but his body is. His tail is a 

 triumph, wlien fairly spread out ; and as for 

 the strength with whicli it is attached to Ins 

 body, you may hold him up by the aforesaid 

 tail as long as you can — with ono hand. Then 

 his hair is pepper-and-salt in hue, long and 

 curly, and — if I may so speak (though no one 

 but myself and the family will know exactly 

 what I mean by it) — with a kind of silken 

 wiriness." 



THE ENGLISH TERRIER. 



This dog is commonly of a black and tan 

 colour ; and tliose of this tint are the best ; but 

 they are sometimes white. If black and tan, 

 they should not present a speck of white ; and 

 if white, they should be entirely of that colour. 



In conflict, the English terrier is as resolute 

 as the Scotch ; but he is less capable of support- 

 ing cold, and is not so fond of the water. 

 AVhat was the primitive stock of this breed we 

 cannot say; but we should be inclined to con- 

 cur in the opinion of Mr. Eichardson, that his 

 original is to be found in the rough, or Scotch 

 breed. AYe are the more inclined to this opin- 

 ion, as we have seen a pair of beautiful Skye 

 terriers, with careful feeding and nursing, 

 gradually become smoother and shorter in the 

 hair, until they seemed likely to lose their ori- 

 ginal character altogether. Mr. Richardson 

 says, that a small, well-marked English terrier, 

 under seven pounds' weight, will, if as good as 

 be looks, fetch from five to ten guineas. The 

 celebrated dog " Billy," who killed the hundred 

 rats in less than five minutes, was a white Eng- 

 lish terrier, with a dark patch on the side of his 

 head. 



We have already alluded to the wonderful 

 fecundity of rats, of which, according to the 

 writer already quoted, Mr. Shaw's little dog, 

 "Tiny," under six pounds' weight, destroyed 

 Uco thousand Jive hundred and twenty-Jlve pairs ; 

 which, had they been permitted to live, would, 

 he says, within a given time, have produced 

 one thousand six hundred and thirty-three mil-' 

 3f 



lions, one hundred and ninefy thousand two hun- 

 dred living rata ! Hats destroyed by Messrs. 

 Shaw and Sabin in two years, amounting to 

 scvcnlffn thousand pairs, would, had they beea 

 ponnitted to live, have produced, at the caji- 

 culation of this writer, and in the same time, 

 no less than ten thousand nine hundred and 

 ninely-five millions, seven hundred and thirty- 

 six thousand! "Now," contiuues the writer, 

 " let us calculate the amount of human food 

 that they would destroy. lu the first place, 

 my informants tell me that six rats will con- 

 sume, day by day, as much food as a man ; 

 secondly, that the thing has been tested, and 

 that the estimate given was, that eight rata 

 would consume more than an ordinary man. 

 Now I — to place the thing beyond the small- 

 est shadow of a doubt — will set down ten rats 

 to eat as much as a man, not a child; nor will 

 I say anything about what rats waste. And 

 what shall we find to be the alarming result ? 

 Why, that the first pair of rats, with their 

 three years' progeny, would consume, in the 

 night, more food than sixty-four thousand six 

 hundred and eighty men the year round, leaving 

 eight rats to spare ! And the rats destroyed 

 by the little wonder, ' Tiny,' had they been 

 permitted to live, would, at the same calcula- 

 tion, with their three years' progeny, have con- 

 sumed as much food as one hundred and sixty- 

 three millions, three hundred and nineteen thou- 

 sand and twenty men : above two-thirds of the 

 population of Europe !" 



Verily, if this be the case, it is a happy ar- 

 rangement in the great scheme of Providence, 

 that some animals that have a more than usual 

 fecundity, have been created to destroy each 

 other when they become too numerous, and 

 that terriers have been so constituted to assist 

 in the destruction of rats ! 



THE TURNSPIT TERRIER. 



This dog is a small, long-backed, cross-made 

 thing, with the fore legs bent, first inwards 

 and then outwards, presenting several wind- 

 ings, but rather of the crooked than the flow- 

 ing kind, which Hogarth characterised as the 

 line of beauty. He is a mongrel, and his 

 name sufliciently denotes the meanness of the 

 occupation in which he was formerly engaged. 

 This was to turn a wheel, on which depended 

 the spit which roasted the meat ia tiie kitchen. 



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