202 EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS. CH. XXXI II- 



pleasant half-hour in listening to his amusing and 

 enthusiastic descriptions of the "hereditary in- 

 stincts " of his favourite dogs. 



There is certainly no class of dog in which this 

 faculty is more decidedly shown than in retrievers. 

 Although a retriever is frequently of a cross-breed, 

 yet if his ancestors for one or two generations back 

 have been well educated, and have had much prac- 

 tice in retrieving, he invariably requires little if 

 any teaching, and appears to understand the whole 

 of his business instinctively. I am convinced that 

 I have seen this inherited skill exemplified in one 

 of my retrievers, a curious kind of rough animal, 

 who resembles a Russian poodle more than any 

 other dog. I bought him of a man who lived by 

 poaching, and other similar arts, when the dog was 

 six months old, and before he could have acquired 

 any very bad habits. The dog invariably showed, 

 and still shows, the most determined propensity to 

 steal meat and other eatables. Neither flogging 

 nor good feeding prevents him, and he carries on 

 his operations in so cunning and systematic a man- 

 ner, that I dread taking him to any friend's house 

 without instantly fastening him up. As long as 

 any person is looking at him, he remains in a state 

 of apparently the most innocent quietude ; but the 

 moment no eye is on him, ahiit, evasit ; and to a 



