ST. HILDA AND ITS BIRDS. 333; 



The dogs of St. Kilda are quite a feature of the place, 

 and a not altogether pleasing one. They are of a mongrel 

 collie tj^pe, warranted to do as little work and to make 

 as much noise about it, as possible. They are relatively 

 very numerous, there being no less than thirty-four in the 

 island, an average of 21 to each house. They are kept 

 ostensibly as sheep dogs, an office which they perform 

 sufficient^ badly, their only idea of catching a sheep 

 being the pristine one of worrying it, so that their teeth 

 have to be specially blunted to prevent the damage that 

 would otherwise ensue. Every 3"oung dog, therefore, 

 when he attains the age of six months, has his canine teeth 

 broken oif on a level with his gums with a hammer and 

 chisel, and all the others are blunted by being filed down, 

 which filing process is repeated two or three times a year 

 when the dog is young, the intervals being gradually pro- 

 longed up to the age of five years, after which the opera- 

 tion is no longer considered necessary. They are most 

 unpleasant in their attentions to strangers, and though I 

 believe they do not bite, the persistent snarling and bark- 

 ings do not exactly add to one's comlort. It was not till 

 quite towards the close of my visit that they began to 

 cease to manifest active hostility towards me; I cannot 

 say that even then they showed any signs of friendship, 

 but it was something to be tolerated, and to be enabled to 

 take one's walks abroad without exciting the attentions of 

 the whole pack. If they would only conduct themselves 

 with some propriety at night, one might endeavour to feel 

 not too uncharitably disposed towards them ; but when one 

 is deprived of sleep at night, as well as worried by day, 

 by their persistent howlings, one can only vote them an 

 unmitigated plague. Fortunately, however, it is not every 

 night that they offend in this way. Whenever a boat of 

 any sort comes into the bay, even one of the boats of the 



