374 Modern Dogs. 



temper, I should without hesitation say the curly- 

 coated retriever. He is so as he reclines on his 

 bench in the show building ; he is so with his com- 

 panions in his kennels at home ; and he remains so 

 when doing duty with the guns at the " big shoot " 

 in the late autumn, when the leaves are off the trees 

 and the undergrowth of bramble and fern have lost 

 their luxuriance. 



He is a faithful and useful dog to follow the 

 keeper who makes a companion of him, for in 

 addition to being very steady and easy to command, 

 he possesses a good nose if the scent be not too 

 stale, and is well able to give variety to his 

 retrieving instincts by killing any vermin that the 

 traps may have caught. One big curly dog a 

 keeper owned up in the north was an adept at 

 finding stoats in an old stone fence. With his 

 assistance, the ferrets and the guns, we killed seven 

 of these mischievous little creatures one afternoon, 

 and there were two or three remaining which the 

 dog's owner said they would get the next day. 

 St. John, in his " Highland Sports," tells how a 

 retriever of his found and brought out an otter. 



Although there are, in various parts of the country, 

 some few kennels that contain the curly-coated 

 retrievers for working purposes, he is as often used for 

 a companion and as a show dog. For a companion, 



