Old English (Bob-tailed) Sheep Dog. 149 



a jacket to withstand all vicissitudes of weather, 

 for his avocation was an everyday one ; day and 

 night, and in all weathers, was he watching and 

 battling with heat and storm and marauding foes. 

 What other dog but the old English sheep-dog 

 possesses attributes necessary for the multifarious 

 duties urged upon such a business ? 



"There we find the sagacity, the activity, the 

 enduring strength, the dauntless courage, and the 

 weatherproof jacket combined to such a degree in 

 no other British dog. His origin is lost in the dim 

 obscurity of buried centuries. To my mind his 

 antiquity and concentration of purity of strain are 

 fully shown in the fact, that if there be a strain of 

 old English sheep-dog blood many generations 

 back in any breed of dog, a typical specimen will 

 every now and again show itself in the litter 

 produced by utterly dissimilar breeds, no matter 

 whether it be a retriever, lurcher, spaniel, or cur of 

 low degree. Apparently not one drop of sheep- 

 dog blood for generations, and yet there is the 

 unmistakable youngster sometimes tailless, more 

 often with a three-inch stump brought into the 

 world jet-black, with his characteristic white 

 markings, and in a few weeks, chameleon-like, he 

 gradually assumes the silvery-lilac livery of his 

 ancient British ancestors, and makes his bow to 



