Nov. 1833. 



SHEPHERD DOGS. 



in their sport they sometimes gallop their poor subjects most 

 unmercifully. 



The shepherd dog comes to the house every day for some 

 meat, and immediately it is given him, he skulks away as 

 if ashamed of himself. On these occasions the house-dogs 

 are very tyrannical, and the least of them will attack and 

 pursue the stranger. The minute, however, the latter has 

 reached the flock, he turns round, and begins to bark, and 

 then all the house-dogs take very quickly to their heels. In 

 a similar manner a whole pack of the hungry wild dogs will 

 scarcely ever (and I was told by some, never) venture to 

 attack a flock guarded even by one of these faithful shep- 

 herds. The whole account appears to me a curious instance 

 of the pliability of the aff'ections in the dog race ; and yet, 

 whether wild, or however educated, with a mutual feeling of 

 respect or fear for those that are fulfilling their instinct of 

 association. For we can understand on no principle, the 

 wild dogs being driven away by the single one with its flock, 

 except that they consider, from some confused notion, 

 that the one thus associated gains power, as if in company 

 with its own kind. F. Cuvier has observed, that all animals 

 that readily enter into domestication, consider man as a 

 member of their society, and thus fulfil their instinct of 

 association. In the above case the shepherd dogs rank the 

 sheep as their fellow brethren ; and the wild dogs, though 

 knowing that the individual sheep are not dogs, but are 

 good to eat, yet partly consent to this view, when seeing 

 them in a flock with a shepherd dog at their head. 



One evening a " domidor^^ (a subduer of horses) came for 

 the purpose of breaking in some colts. I will describe the 

 preparatory steps, for I believe they have not been men- 

 tioned by other travellers. A troop of wild young horses is 

 driven into the corral, or large enclosure of stakes, and the 

 door is shut. We will suppose that one man alone has to catch 

 and mount a horse, which as yet had never felt bridle or 

 saddle. I conceive, except by a Gaucho, such a feat would 



