260 THE BOOK OF A NATURALIST 
who were looking on, succeeded in drawing them 
apart. 
One more instance of many which I have 
observed during the last two years. This is of a 
rather large and exgeptionally powerful fox-terrier, 
who when out for a walk keeps a very sharp look- 
out for other dogs, and the instant he spies one 
not bigger than himself charges him furiously and 
with the impact hurls him to the ground, and, 
leaving him there, he dashes on in search of a 
fresh victim. 
These are, however, exceptions, few individuals 
having intelligence enough to find out a new way 
of inflicting injury. As a rule the dog of ineradic- 
ably savage temper looks at his fellows as if saying, 
“Oh, for five minutes with this cursed muzzle 
off!” And the others, seeing his terrible aspect, 
are glad that the muzzle is on—a blessed muzzle 
it is to them; and if they only knew what the 
doggie people were saying in the papers and could 
express their views on the subject, many of them 
would be heard to cry out, “Save us from our 
friends!” . 
The muzzling order had thus appeared to me 
as a sort of Golden Age of the metropolitan dogs 
—and cats, for these too had incidentally been 
affected and strangely altered in their habits. And 
here I must say that all I wrote in my note-book 
about the dogs during and just after the muzzling 
period has been compressed into as short a space 
