DOUBLE-NOSED SCOTCH TERRIERS 297 



easily trained ' off chase.' As a rule, I preferred to 

 have only one spaniel out of the team as a retriever, 

 and none of them ' mute/ for I have several times had 

 valuable mute dogs shot. If two or three of a pack 

 retrieve there is certain to be jealousy, and in con- 

 sequence a deal of ' mouthing.' I generally fastened 

 a falcon's bell on the retrieving spaniel, so that if a 

 retriever was not at hand he could be at once called 

 on. Ramblers, especially mute ones, are a curse, and 

 generally incurable. No dog which rambles after a 

 first season should be kept ; it is a very difficult 

 matter for anyone to cure a dog of such a fault — -the 

 worst of all faults in covert. 



I have for several years possessed a rare breed of 

 double-nosed Scotch terriers, which beat any spaniel I 

 ever had in thick covert. This breed is, I believe, 

 now extinct. They are marvellously strong in the 

 back and loins, and possess the most wonderful noses, 

 and can take up the trail of a hare hours after the 

 night run, and work up to its ' form.' I have known my 

 celebrated dog Muffy do this, very much in the fashion 

 of an otter-hound. This dog came from a keeper of 

 the name of Macpherson (at one time ' the Lovat 

 piper'), from Glendoe Lodge, Fort Augustus. Up to 

 the time he was fifteen years old he was the best-nosed 

 doe of the breed I ever saw. I have often seen him 

 race a rabbit on the hard road at a time when no other 

 dog could hunt either in covert or the open. This 

 breed is in colour exactly like a yellow ferret, and their 

 mouths are so small that they can with difficulty mouth 

 a hare or rabbit, even if so inclined. They are con- 

 sequently too small to retrieve anything except birds 

 and rabbits. They are invaluable in thick whin or 



