CHAPTER XLV. 



" Albert," a famous Labrador Dog — As a Water-Dog — His intelligence — Takes to Sheep- 

 stealing — Death ! 



In^ a recent number of Land and Water, Mr. Frank Buckland, in 

 writing about the Ophiojphagiis elaps, a serpent-eating serpent 

 lately introduced into the Zoological Gardens, London, with aU the 

 honours due to a visitor so choice and curious in its diet, remarks 

 that " the saying that ' Dog wUl not eat dog ' is proverbial amongst 

 us." North of the Tweed, neither in Gaelic nor in guid braid 

 Scotch, is any such proverb known. The nearest approach to it 

 that we can think of at this moment [April 1875] is the saying 

 that " Hawks winna pick oot hawks' een," and this is applied in a 

 sense very different from that suggested by Mr. Buckland's 

 proverb, if such a proverb exists. At aU events the saying that 

 dog will not eat dog is not true ; dog wUl eat dog, ravenously and 

 greedily enough, when he is hungry and gets the chance. Not- 

 withstanding his domestication and long " acquaintance with the 

 usages of civilised life, the dog is, under certain circumstances, as 

 thorough a cannibal and savage as ever was Fiji islander in the 

 days when that worthy Polynesian would give the best finger of 

 his right hand for a prime haunch of full-fed and fat " missionary." 

 Out of many instances that had come under our own observation of 

 cannibalism in dogs, take the following, aU the circumstances con- 

 nected with which, although it is somewhat of an old story now, 

 are for many reasons as fresh in our recollection as if they had 

 occurred but yesterday. "When we came to Lochaber, upwards of 



