172 PASTORAL DOGS, ETC. 
the taste of the inspector, but it indicates without doubt a depar- 
ture from the true breed, and on that account is to be deprecated. 
The eyes are set more closely together than usual, as above 
remarked, and the axes of the openings are oblique, in this also 
resembling the dingo and fox. In size they are not remarkable 
either way, but they are sharp and cunning in expression, at the 
same time being altogether without fierceness. The colour is 
generally brown in its various shades of hazel. 
The shoulders are required to be of the most useful formation, 
that is to say, sloping and muscular. If heavy, the dog cannot be 
quick over rough ground, as he is required to be, and notably 
down-hill, nor can he stop himself suddenly in correspondence 
with the flock he is guarding. 
The chest is required to be of sufficient volume for the ‘play of 
lungs and heart, but to secure the shoulders of the requisite form 
it must not be barrel-like, nor should it be keel-shaped to the full 
extent, or it will strike against inequalities of the ground. 
The doin must be muscular for the hill-work it ‘Vee to do, and a 
slightly arched one is particularly suited to it. Deep back ribs are 
not required for this kind of strength, but they also indicate the 
hardy constitution absolutely necessary for the sheep-dog. 
The legs must have no weak point anywhere. Zlbows should 
be strong, well let down, and set on straight. Stifles and hocks 
large, powerful, and clean. Arms muscular as well as long, and 
knees wide, and not with too much bend backwards, thongh, as in 
the foxhound, I object to a very upright pastern. This last must 
be of large bone and tendon. The hind-legs often have a double 
dew-claw, but this is sometimes entirely absent. 
The feet are hare-like, with strongly arched. toes and horny. pads. 
The coat in the true breed is very characteristic, somewhat 
shaggy, and very thick in its long hair, and with a woolly under- 
coat, which becomes visible on separating the outer one. Round 
the neck is a remarkable frill or ruff, which seems to have been 
recently copied by the ladies by means of the fur capes which have 
come into fashion with the collie. On the upper side there is not 
nearly so long a development of this frill, which is, however, nearly 
as long at the sides as below. The fore-legs have a little feather 
on them—the less the better; but the hind ones are quite bare. 
