74 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
rushed up stairs, and would have torn to pieces a man who was 
a-bed there, had he not been prevented. It was a discarded 
servant, who, instigated by a spirit of revenge, had committed 
the atrocity. 
The most interesting case I know of this acuteness of scent 
had reference to a shepherd’s dog, a collet /. It is related by the 
Ettrick Shepherd, and he shall tell it in nearly his own words. 
“ A young man, his first offence, selected some sheep from 
the flock of a former master, and set off with them towards 
Edinburgh. But he had not gone quite oft the farm before his 
conscience smote him, and he quitted the sheep, and let them go 
again to the hill. He called off his dog, and, mounting his 
pony, rode aw r ay. After having proceeded about three miles, he 
thought he heard something coming up behind him, and in a 
few moments he saw his dog with the stolen sheep, driving them 
at a furious rate to keep up with his master. He was exceed¬ 
ingly troubled, for, the sheep having come so far from home, he 
dreaded there would be a pursuit: he beat the dog for the un¬ 
called-for interference, and rode off a second time, taking the 
colley with him. He had not ridden above a mile before he per¬ 
ceived that his assistant had again given him the slip, and, 
suspecting for what purpose, he was terribly alarmed as well 
as chagrined. He resolved to abandon the animal to him¬ 
self, and took a road across the country which he was sure the 
other did not know and could not follow. He pursued a cir¬ 
cuitous course through some lanes, and at length arrived at a 
gate which he opened and shut behind him ; and, half a mile 
farther on, he called at a farm-house and breakfasted. As he 
was about to start again, a person told him that he need not 
hurry himself, for his dog had got the sheep safe enough down 
at the crooked gate. After this it was impossible for the poor 
fellow to get rid of them, and so he took possession of them and 
drove them on, and sold them, and the transaction cost him his 
life. The dog, for the last four or five miles he had brought the 
sheep, could have no other guide to the road his master had gone 
but the smell of his pony’s feet.” 
In the Swine .—The scent even of the pig is acute enough. I 
have spoken of his discovering the earth-nut and the truffle 
many inches under ground. It is a well-authenticated fact, 
that a gamekeeper once broke in a sow to hunt partridges, and 
she was as sure a finder and as stanch a backer as any pointer 
that could be brought into the field. 
In Birds .—Of the accuracy of the stories of the wonderful 
scent of birds I have considerable doubt. That their sense of 
sight is exceedingly strong I can readily believe; for they have 
