12 DOGS 



admired), heavily feathered legs, hind legs well bent at the 

 stifles and standing straight below the hocks ; the body- 

 muscular and graceful, covered with a short woolly coat 

 next the skin and a longer harder one over ; the colours 

 black and tan, sable, occasionally white with sable mark- 

 ings, tricolour black, white, and tan, blue merle, grey and 

 black spots with china blue eyes, but these latter are very 

 rare. Sable collies are the most sought after. 



The Southern collie, or shepherd's dog, is larger than the 

 Scotch, but with shorter fur, and has a very short tail, which 

 is perpetuated from parents whose tails have been cut. 



The drover's dog is generally black and white in colour, 

 and longer in its limbs than the others. It is employed in 

 driving sheep to the city markets, and in the discharge of 

 this duty shows intelligence equal to the other varieties. 

 The dew claws of both English and Scotch shepherd dogs 

 are generally double and are not attached to the bone, as 

 are other claws. These are generally removed, as they are 

 of no use and liable to be torn ofl' by the various obstacles 

 through which the animal is obliged to force its way. 



The collie is also much in request for practical purposes, 

 and his sagacity as a sheep dog is too well known to need 

 description. If only a tenth part of the anecdotes told about 

 him were true, one would be constrained to admit that in 

 iutelligence and quickness of perception he approaches so 

 near to man as to mark the line between reason and 

 instinct ; and as the feats reported have been proved to 

 have been actually performed by these dogs and the facts 

 corroborated by eye-witnesses, one is driven to answer the 

 old question whether brutes reason in the affirmative. 



A Mr. Jackson, of King's Heath, Birmingham, writes 

 in the ' Stock-Keeper' that he witnessed a wonderful per- 

 formance of canine sagacity, in which a collie named Scott, 

 aged fifteen months, played a game of cards. 



' A new pack of cards was produced, which were 

 thoroughly shuffled and cut. I dealt out a " nap" hand. 

 The dog's master placed the dog's cards promiscuously on 

 the floor, and being my first call I called " three ; " the dog 



