12 



CASSELL'S POPULAR NATURAL HISTORY. 



Sir William Jardiiie says : " We have witnessed the care which these dogs take of their charge, and 

 with what readiness they chastise those that molest them, in the case of a cur biting a sheep in the 

 rear of the flock, and unseen by the shepherd. This assault was committed by a tailor's dog, but not 

 unmarked by the shepherd's dog, who immediately seized the delinquent, and dragging him into a puddle, 

 while holding his oar, kept dabbling him in the mud with exemplary gravity ; the cur yelled, the tailor came 

 with his goose to the rescue, and having flung it at the sheep-dog, and missed him, stood by gaping, 

 not venturing to fetch it back till the castigation was over, and the dog hud followed the flock." 



The great usefulness of the shepherd's dog has made men anxious for the preservation of this 

 remarkable species. No dog can render such a variety of services, and no one can discharge his trust 

 more faithfully. At a word he drives the sheep, in order and regularity, to and from their pasture, 

 and will suffer no stranger from another flock to intrude on his. Should any one stray, he instantly 

 springs forward to stop its course. If pointed out to him on a mountain more than a mile distant, 

 he goes off at full speed, and soon returns with the wanderer. 







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THE SHEPHERDS Dl.lU. 



These dogs drive the sheep entirely by the voice, never lacerating them with the teeth, nor 

 employing force, except to preserve peace and good order. Awake, they are always obedient to their 

 master's directions ; and, resting, they lie down by his wallet, and preserve it from plunder. In 

 countries infested by wolves, they protect the flocks from danger. The voice of the dog generally 

 alarms and drives off the enemy, and collects the flock into a body much better than that of the 

 shepherd. 



To James Hogg, so greatly celebrated as "the Ettrick Shepherd," we are more indebted for inter- 

 esting particulars of this sagacious animal than to any other writer all of them being derived from 

 his own observation and experience in pastoral life. He remarks : 



" Without the shepherd's dog, the whole of the mountainous land in Scotland would not be worth 

 a sixpence ! It would require more hands to manage a stock of sheep, gather them from the hills, force 

 them into houses and folds, and drive them to markets, than the profits of the whole stock would be 

 capable of maintaining. Well may the shepherd feel an interest in his dog ; he it is, indeed, that earns 

 the family's bread, of which he is himself content with the smallest morsel always grateful, and 

 always ready to exert his utmost abilities in his master's interest. Neither hunger, fatigue, nor the 

 worst of treatment, will drive him from his master's side ; he will follow him through any hardship, 

 without murmuring or repining, till he literally falls down dead at his feet." 



Hogg saw, one day, a drover leading a dog in a rope ;. he was hungry, lean, and far from being a 



