CH. XXXIII. SKYE TERRIERS. 213 



ter in this dog, and if well entered at vermin when 

 young they are useful enough. Like all terriers, 

 though eager hunters, they do not appear to hunt 

 so much to find as to kill ; and when in company 

 with spaniels they are apt to leave the latter to 

 search for the game, while they wait about the runs 

 and outside the bushes, ready to spring upon what- 

 ever is started by the spaniels. I have always found 

 this to be the case with my own Skye terriers, and 

 have observed it in others. These dogs generally 

 take the water freely and well, though I have had 

 smooth bull -terriers better swimmers and divers 

 than any rough dog I ever possessed. 



Though dogs often disagree, and are jealous of 

 each other at home, they generally make common 

 cause against a stranger. Two of my dogs, who 

 were such enemies and fought so constantly that I 

 could not keep them in the same kennel, seemed to 

 have compared notes, and to have found out that 

 they had both of them been bullied by a large, 

 powerful watch-dog belonging to a farmer in the 

 neighbourhood. They suspended their own hos- 

 tilities, and formed an alliance, and then they 

 together assaulted the common enemy ; and so 

 well assisted each other that, although he was 

 far stronger than both my dogs put together, he 

 was so fairly beaten and bullied that he never 



