MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 711 
where they are, and the wonderful thing is that the shepherd does not tell 
the dogs to go to the corners, but the weaker ones invariably by their own 
instinct take this post, while the stronger and heavier dogs remain with the 
shepherd, on the alert, to rush at once to any spot to which they are called. 
As I have already said, dogs so brought up, when with their flock, are utterly 
fearless of man or beast; but if they leave the flock, be it only to walk with 
their master down a village street, they are the veriest cowards possible, 
The shepherd told me that the daily routine of the dogs with the flock 
was due to no teaching of his. He said that it was instinct, and was quite 
unable to tell me where or when the system had been introduced. He only 
knew that from time immemorial it had existed. WhenI1 asked him if his 
dogs would really have bitten the inspector, he answered, ‘‘ Of course they 
would,’ and added, “ that no wise man would ever go near a sheep inclosure.” 
And when I pointed out the fact that the inspector had been going along 
a public footpath, he replied “ that his inclosure had been there before the 
footpath, which had been made by the workmen going to and coming from 
the railway bridge.” The shepherd did not do so badly after all with the 
compensation he got for the loss of his dogs, as the increase of population 
and of cultivation had driven off the wild animals to a great extent from 
about Akola, so that he could manage to get along without those that had 
been shot; but I found afterwards that what he had said was quite true, he 
could not have replaced them under two years, 
This account will show how cleverly the instinct of the dog has been 
utilised for the protection of his flock by the shepherd in Berar, and for all 
I know, also in cther parts of India, and to me it is all the more wonderful, 
as from the circumstances of the training this cannot be an inherited 
instinct, 
J. F, G. 
[The custom of rearing dogs for the protection of the flocks, amongst the 
sheep themselves goes back many hundreds of years, Darwin says that when 
staying in Banda Oriental he was amused with what he “saw and heard of 
the shepherd dogs of the country . . . Their method of education consists 
in separating the puppy when very young from his bitch and in accustoming 
it to its future companions. The ewe is held three or four times a day for 
the little thing to suck, and a nest of wool is made for.itin the sheep pen, 
Ai no time is it allowed to associate with other dogs or with the children 
of the family. The puppy is also castrated in order that it can have no 
common feeling with the rest of its kind. From this education it has no 
wish to leave the flock, and just as another dog will defend:its master—man, 
so will these the sheep. It is amusing to observe when approaching a flock 
how the dog immediately advances barking and the sheep all close in his 
rear, as if round the oldest ram,’—Eb.] 
(The above appeared in the Field cn 16th February, 1901). 
