THE NATURALIST IN NIDDERDALE. 357 
tan, long sharp head, long tail, sometimes tall; very strong, swift, 
and clever. A second kind is a smaller dog, smooth silver-grey, 
with dark grey blotches; always wall-eyed, light eye in lighter 
patch; bark snappish; barks in a skulking way with its tail 
between its legs; cowardly. A third kind, handsomer than the 
other two, and generally larger, is a long-haired shaggy dog, with 
a mass of long hair about the neck; colour black and white, 
being black over back and sides; has a white ring round his neck 
(whence he is generally called ‘‘ Ring”); ears sharp, short, erect; 
face short, triangular; tail hairy. The fourth type is a noble- 
looking dog, rough-haired, terrier like, large; colour dark slaty 
blue above, light ochreous brown below; tan legs; face hairy; 
ears small, partly erect, then drooping; tail large, dark above, light 
under; bark loud—a good honest announcement of the presence 
of a stranger. Though there are some few dogs that do not fall 
under any of these types, by far the larger number of the sheep 
dogs in Nidderdale do; and though the points of difference may 
appear to be trifling, they are extremely characteristic and dis- 
tinctive. A great many of those dogs are imported from Scotland, 
a few from Craven, and elsewhere. 
The following are some of the very old dog’s names in the 
dale :—Craft, Rake, Gade, Flora, Gess, Bute, Luce, Fleet, Shep, 
Ring, Tossel, Glan, Roy, Yarrow, and Hoov. Some of these are 
eminently suggestive of high antiquity. ‘“‘ Rake” has a Scandi- 
navian origin, Rakki being the Old Norsk for a dog. Sheep are 
said to “rake out’? when they form into a line on being first 
disturbed by the shepherd, and the sheep-tracks which they make 
walking single file are called “‘sheep-rakes.” Danish Rekke means 
a “row.” So that we may safely conclude that the name of “‘ Rake” 
is at least 1000 years old in the dale. Similarly ‘“‘Hoov” is the 
Welsh Hwv and the Anglo-Saxon Héf, a hood (pronounced Hoov), 
and was probably given as a name to a dog in allusion to the shape 
of the hair on the head, or to its colour, presenting the appearance 
of a hood. The word “ Hove” (a hood) was still in use in the 
time of Chaucer, and is, in fact, used by him in the ‘ Canterbury 
Tales’ :— 
“, . . . . And some deal set his hove.’—YV. 3909. 
The name “ Hoov” may therefore be 1300 years old in the dale. 
It is probable that we are more dependent upon animal food 
than we used to be. In their early days the present generation 
