62 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM 



The dog was well known in Scotland, too, under the title of 

 the Bearded Collie, for there is little doubt that this last is 

 merely a variant of the breed. He differs, in point of fact, 

 chiefly by reason of possessing a tail, the amputation of which 

 is a recognised custom in England. 



With regard to this custom, it is said that the drovers origin- 

 ated it. Their dogs, kept for working purposes, were immune 

 from taxation, and they adopted this method of distinguish- 

 ing the animals thus exempted. It has been argued, by 

 disciples of the Darwinian theory of inherited effects from 

 continued mutilations, that a long process of breeding from 

 tailless animals has resulted in producing puppies naturally 

 bob-tailed, and it is difficult, on any other hypothesis, to 

 account for the fact that many puppies are so born. It is 

 certainly a fact that one or two natural bob-tails are frequently 

 found in a litter of which the remainder are duly furnished with 

 well-developed tails. 



From careful consideration of the weight of evidence, it 

 seems unlikely that the breed was originally a tailless one, but 

 the modern custom undoubtedly accentuates its picturesque- 

 ness by bringing into special prominence the rounded shaggy 

 quarters and the characteristic bear-like gait which dis- 

 tinguish the Old English Sheepdog. 



Somewhere about the 'sixties there would appear to have 

 been a revival of interest in the bob-tail's welfare, and attempts 

 were made to bring him into prominence. In 1873 his ad- 

 mirers succeeded in obtaining for him a separate classification 

 at a recognised show, and at the Curzon Hall, at Birmingham, 

 in that year three temerarious competitors appeared to under- 

 go the ordeal of expert judgment. It was an unpromising 

 beginning, for Mr. M. B. Wynn, who officiated found their 

 quality so inferior that he contented himself with awarding a 

 second prize. 



But from this small beginning important results were to 

 spring, and the Old English Sheepdog has made great strides 

 in popularity since then. At Clerkenwell, in 1905, the entries 



