406 



THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



" Spanish white dogs which were wrecked 

 on the Isle of Skye at the time when the 

 Spanish Armada lost so many ships on the 

 western coast." But putting aside the im- 

 probability that the Spaniards took any 

 dogs with them on a military expedition 

 in galleons which were already overcrowded 

 with men and insufficiently provisioned, 

 there is the fact that the Highlanders 

 possessed working terriers long before the 

 year 1588. The Norsemen who ruled in 

 the Hebrides three centuries earlier, had 

 brought dogs with them from Scandinavia, 

 and the terriers of the islands were too 

 strong to be affected in type by the intro- 

 duction into their midst of " a shipwrecked 

 Poodle." Furthermore, Dr. Caius, who wrote 

 a score of years or more before the time 

 when Philip sent his Armada to invade 

 these shores, described an "Iseland" dog 

 which many modern authorities identify 

 as a description of the Skye Terrier. There 

 can be no question that these dogs, which 

 are so typically Highland in character and 

 appearance, as well as the Clydesdale, the 

 Scottish, the Dandie Dinmont, and the 

 White Poltalloch terriers, are all the de- 

 scendants of a purely native Scottish 

 original. They are all inter-related ; but 

 which was the parent breed it is impossible 

 to determine. 



It is even difficult to discover which of 

 the two distinct types of the Skye Terrier 

 was the earlier the variety whose ears 

 stand alertly erect or its near relative whose 

 ears are pendulous. Perhaps it does not 

 matter. The differences between the prick- 

 eared Skye and the drop-eared are so 

 slight, and the characteristics which they 

 have in common are so many, that a dual 

 classification was hardly necessary. The 

 earliest descriptions and engravings of the 

 breed present a terrier considerably smaller 

 than the type of to-day, carrying a fairly 

 profuse, hard coat, with short legs, a body 

 long in proportion to its height, and with 

 ears that were neither erect nor drooping, 

 but semi-erect and capable of being raised 

 to alertness in excitement. It is the case 

 that drop-eared puppies often occur in the 

 litters of prick-eared parents, and vice versa. 



A good example of the working Skye 

 Terrier of five-and-twenty years ago is 

 shown in the engraving on p. 405 of 

 Mr. A. M. Shaw's Flora, who was regarded 

 in her day as a good-looking specimen, 

 although at the present time she would 

 hardly be identified as a true type of the 

 breed. Indeed, if you were to strip her of 

 her shaggy coat and give her a pair of 

 perkily pricked ears, she might as well pass 

 muster for a rather long bodied Scottish 

 Terrier as for a Skye. Still, the portrait 

 shows that a quarter of a century ago great 

 length of coat was not sought for in a terrier 

 accustomed to worry its way after vermin 

 through prickly whin bushes and among 

 the jagged passages of a fox cairn. 



As its name implies, this terrier had its, 

 early home in the misty island of Skye ; 

 which is not to say that it was not also 

 to be found in Lewis, Oronsay, Colonsay 

 and others of the Hebrides, as well as on 

 the mainland of Scotland. Dr. Johnson, 

 who visited these islands with Boswell in 

 1773, and was a guest at Dunvegan Castle, 

 made no descriptive note in his letters con- 

 cerning the terriers, although he refers 

 frequently to the Deerhound ; but he 

 observed that otters and weasels were 

 plentiful in Skye, and that the foxes were 

 so numerous that there was a price upon 

 their heads, which had been raised from 

 three shillings and sixpence to a guinea, 

 " a sum so great in this part of the world 

 that in a short time Skye may be as free 

 from foxes as England from wolves," and 

 he adds that they were hunted by small dogs. 

 He was so accurate an observer that one 

 regrets he did not describe the Macleod's 

 terriers and their work. They were at that 

 time of many colours, varying from pure 

 white to fawn and brown, blue-grey and 

 black. The lighter coloured ones had black 

 muzzles, ears, and tails. Their tails were 

 carried more gaily than would be permitted 

 by a modern judge of the breed. 



In those days the Highlander cared less 

 for the appearance than he did for the 

 sporting proclivities of his dogs, whose 

 business it was to oust the tod from the 

 earth in which it had taken refuge ; and 



