212 



VERTEBRATA. 



THE ICELAND DOG. 



The traveling in Ireland is sometimes exceedingly dangerous at the beginning of the. winter. 

 A thin layer of snow covers ami eonceals some of the chasms with which that region abounds. 

 Should the traveler fall into one of them, the dog proves a most useful animal ; for he runs im- 

 mediately across the snowy waste, and by his howling induces the traveler's friends to hasten to 

 his rescue. 



The Shepherd's Dog, though little used in the United States, is universally known as one of the 

 mosl interesting of the dog species. It possesses much of the same form and character in every 

 country. The muzzle is sharp, the ears are short and nearly erect, and the animal is covered, par- 

 ticularly about the neck, with thick and shaggy hair. He has usually two dew-claws on each of 

 the hind-legs — not, however, as in the one claw of other dogs, having a jointed attachment to the 

 limb, hut merely connected by the skin and some slight cellular substance. The tail is long, and 

 slightly turned upward, and is almost as bushy as that of a fox. He is of a black color, or black 

 prevails, mixed with gray or brown. 



There are several breeds of the sheep-dog, used in different countries for different purposes. 

 Some of the larger and more powerful kinds are employed, among other duties, to guard the 

 flock from the wolf. In such cases, the sheep, on the slightest alarm, rally round the dog, as 

 if conscious that he is their protector. Whatever differences there may be in the breeds, they 

 have all the same substantia] character of intelligence and devotion to their duties. Other 

 do U rs — the pointer, the setter, the hound, the greyhound, the terrier, the spaniel — have each 

 admirable gifts of nature, heightened by training; but the shepherd's dog surpasses them all in 

 adaptation to his work. If he be hut with his master, he lies content, indifferent to every sur- 

 rounding object, seemingly half asleep and half awake, rarely mingling with his kind, rarely 

 courting, and generally shrinking from, the notice of a stranger; but the moment duty calls, his 

 sleepy, listless eye becomes brightened; he eagerly gazes on his master, inquires and comprehends 

 all he is to do, and, springing up, gives himself to the discharge of his duty with a sagacity, and 

 fidelity, and devotion, too rarely equaled even by man himself. 



James 1 1- •■tlt- the celebrated Ettrick Shepherd, living in his early days among the sheep ami 

 their quadruped attendants, and an accurate observer of nature, as well as an exquisite poet, g 

 -one- anecdotes of the colley — the Highland term for sheep-dog — with which the reader will 

 not he displeased : "My dog Sirrah," says he, in a letter to the Editor of Blackwood's Edinburgh 

 Magazine, "was, beyond all comparison, the best dog I ever >a\s. He had a somewhat surly 

 and ansocial temper, disdaining all flattery, and refusing to be caressed; hut his attention to my 

 commands and interest will never again he equaled by any of the canine race, When I first saw 

 him, a drover was hading him with a rope. He was both Lean and hungry, and far from being , 



