THE COLLET DOG. 195 



pet colley, not being exposed to weather, is quite as useful to his master with an 

 open setter coat and feathered legs ; .while regarded from an artistic point of view 

 he is more handsom from the superior brilliancy of his colour, and from the 

 addition of feather. His ears, when thus bred, are, however, seldom good, being 

 neither pricked like the colley 's, nor falling close like the setter's ; and this is the 

 chief objection to the cross from the pet dog point of view, though no doubt 

 it is and has been easily bred out by careful selection. Moreover, if a pet is 

 wanted solely as such, the Gordon setter in his purity is a handsomer dog than 

 the colley with a more pettable disposition, and it would be better to select him 

 accordingly. 



In Scotland and the north of England, as well as in Wales, a great variety of 

 breeds is used for tending sheep, depending greatly on the locality in which they 

 are employed, and on the kind of sheep adopted in it. The Welsh sheep is so wild 

 that he requires a faster dog than even the Highlander of Scotland, while in the 

 lowlands of the latter country a heavier, tamer, and slower sheep is generally 

 introduced. Hence it follows that a different dog is required to adapt itself to these 

 varying circumstances, and it is no wonder that the strains are as numerous as they 

 are. In Wales there is certainly, as far as I know, no special breed of sheepdog, 

 and the same may be said of the north of England, where, however, the colley 

 (often improperly called Scotch), more or less pure, is employed by nearly half the 

 shepherds of that district, the remainder resembling the type known by that name 

 in many respects, but not all. For instance, some show a total absence of " ruff " 

 or "frill;" others have an open coat of a pied black and white colour, with a 

 setter shaped body ; while others, again, resemble the ordinary drover's dog in all 

 respects. But, without doubt, the modern " true and accepted " colley has been in 

 existence for at least thirty years, as proved by the engraving published in Touatt's 

 book on " The Dog " nearly thirty years ago, which, by permission of his publisher, 

 was accepted by me as the proper type in 1859, in my first treatise on the varieties 

 of the canine race. This portrait was, I believe, copied from a specimen in the 

 gardens of the Zoological Society, who for some years after its formation possessed 

 a most interesting collection of dogs, now unfortunately abandoned. Up to the 

 time of the last Brighton show I had never seen a single living example of this 

 type in perfection, but on the appearance there of the celebrated Vero in the show 

 ring, I at once picked him out as not only the best in the class, but the best I 

 had ever seen, embodying nearly all the points exhibited in Youatt's engraving, 

 which severally I had previously met with scattered throughout various prize- 

 winners, such as the Nottingham Cockie, the Birmingham Laddie, Mr. Lacey's Mec, 

 and Mr. Shirley's Shamrock, Trefoil, and Tricolour, and since that time Mr. Shirley 

 has again given him a first prize at the Islington Show of the Kennel Club. 

 No doubt in point of beauty some of the above dogs would compare favourably with 

 him, and notably Shamrock, but, taking every point into consideration, I consider 

 Nero to exhibit the true type of the breed in all respects to an extent bordering on 

 perfection, and as such I offer his portrait to the readers of the Field. Hogg, the 

 Ettrick Shepherd, describes his colley, Sirrah, as possessing a somewhat surly and 



