THE LITTLE RED DOG 239 



the low stature, long body, small ears, and blunt 

 nose giving him a somewhat stoaty or even reptilian 

 appearance among the canines. His red colour is, 

 indeed, the commonest hue of the common dog, 

 or cur, wherever found. It is rarely a bright red, 

 like that of the Irish setter, or any pleasing shade 

 of red, as in the dingo, the fox, and the South 

 American maned wolf; it is dull, often inclining 

 to yellow, sometimes mixed with grey as in the 

 jackal, sometimes with a dash of ginger in it. The 

 unbeautiful yellowish-red is the prevailing hue of 

 the pariah dog. At all events that is the impression 

 one gets from the few of the numberless travellers 

 in the East who have condescended to tell us any- 

 thing about this low-down animal. 



Where the cur or pariah flourishes, there you 

 are sure to find the small red dog, and perhaps 

 wonder at his ability to maintain his existence. 

 He is certainly placed at a great disadvantage. 

 If he finds or steals a bone, the first big dog he 

 meets will say to him, " Drop it ! " And he will 

 drop it at once, knowing very well that if he refuses 

 to do so it will be taken from him, and his own 

 poor little bones perhaps get crunched in the process. 

 As compensation he has, I fancy, a somewhat 

 quicker intelligence, a subtler cunning. His brains 

 weigh less by a great deal than those of the bull- 

 dog or a big cur, but — like ladies' brains compared 

 with men's — they are of a finer quality. 



When I encountered this animal in the quiet 

 Somerset road, and laughed to see him and 



