124 PASTORAL DOGS, ETC. 



hunting game as in his more regular duties, wliile a great many 

 are used as regular poaching dogs by night, and in retired districts 

 by day also. 



THE COLLET. 



One of the most beautiful and useful of all dogs is the Scotch 

 sheep-dog or colley, excellent engravings of which .are given, pp. 

 125-128. With a fine muzzle he combines an intelligent-looking 

 and rather broad head, and a clear but mild eye, a pricked and 

 small ear slightly falling at the tip. His body is elegantly formed, 

 and clothed with a thick coat of woolly hair, which stands out 

 evenly from his sides and protects him from all the vicissitudes of 

 the weather, neither wind, rain, nor snow being capable of pene- 

 trating it. The legs are well formed and the feet strong and use- 

 ful. The tail is long, gently curved, and bushy, and the \\ hole 

 outline resembles that of the dingo ; but the form is stouter and 

 the limbs stronger. The color is nearly always black and tan, with 

 little or no white; sometimes, however, the whole skin is of one 

 or other of these colors, but then the dog is not considered nearly 

 so valuable. The colley, like the true English sheep-dog, has 

 always one or two dew-claws on each hind leg. 



A great deal of discussion has lately taken place in regard to 

 the colley's proper color and general appearance, and various de- 

 scriptions have been given of what each writer considers the 

 genuine breed, differing in every respect but the one to which I 

 have drawn attention, which in almost all cases has been admitted 

 to be essential. Some gentlemen, however, who have obtained 

 specimens with beautiful but open coats of a glossy black, pointed 

 with tan, have contended that this is the desideratum ; and so it is 

 for the dog, considered simply as a companion. Hitherto, how- 

 ever, no one has ventured to propound the theory that he is to be 

 so regarded ; and, until I find that a separate class is made at some 

 one or more of our important shows for " toy colleys," I must 



