THE SKTE TEEEIEE. 205 



THE PRICK-EARED SKYE TERRIER 



Differs frofia the variety above described, in having a larger head, a shorter body, 

 and usually a rougher coat. The ears should stand well up without any outward 

 inclination, and they are only covered with short hair, which, like that on the rest of 

 the head, should be silky. 



The above description of the drop-eared breed is that of the type to which all 

 ought to be compared, but it is not often that I have seen a specimen fully coming 

 up to it. At the Birmingham show of 1865, however, the prize winner Laddie, 

 whose portrait I now present to my readers, fully realised my ideas of the points of 

 the Skye. He was exhibited by Mr. Eussell England, Junior United Service Club, 

 London, and was by a dog belonging to Mr. Daniel Cameron, of Lochiel, out of Mr. 

 James's Lassie, his granddam belonging to his owner. He was a silver grey, with 

 black tips to his ears and tail, and I have never since that time seen his equal. 

 The portrait of the prick-eared variety is that of a dog belonging to Mr. H. Martin, 

 of Glasgow. 



The following letter in relation to this breed, will probably be of interest to 

 many lovers of the dog. 



"To the Editor of 'Doas OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS.'" 



" SIR, In answer to your request I may remind you of some letters which 

 appeared in The Field three or four years ago, from Mr. Eobert Jewel, Lydiates, 

 Herefordshire, and myself, regarding the Scotch terriers. Our object, at the time, 

 being to direct attention to the merits of this fine old breed, which, though 

 plentiful enough forty years ago, has now become scarce, with the view of having 

 it re-established. 



" If I am not mistaken, there was a discussion in one or other of the London 

 sporting papers on the same subject, twelve or eighteen months ago, which you may 

 have seen. This, I think, occurred shortly after the Inverness Dog Show of 1875, 

 when the question was mooted as to what the Skye terrier really was, one party 

 maintaining the silky, and the other the wiry-haired Skyes was the original type. 

 Both varieties were shown at Inverness, and it would be difficult to say which was 

 the handsomest. I suspect the former had the most admirers. But, be this as it 

 may, no doubt should exist as to which was the original and true terrier. In fact 

 the wiry -haired dog had been bred up for a special purpose, namely, to hunt and go 

 to ground after the larger kinds of wild animals, with which the Highlands of 

 Scotland formerly abounded, while the soft haired, blue and tan as they are called, 

 are the result of a cross between the old breed and the French poodle. At all events 

 nothing could be more natural than to suppose, as some Skye gentlemen allege, that 

 the sailors of a French vessel, stranded on the Skye coast, should leave some of 

 these dogs with the inhabitants of the island. But, it is curious and remarkable, 

 if this theory ^e correct, that the poodle should have nicked in so nicely with the 

 native terriej When I use the word native, I should perhaps mention that the wiry 



