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 shepherds."[1]
The following, which we extract from the Times newspaper of August 26th, 1847, quoted from an Edinburgh paper, illustrates the kindness of the shepherd’s dog in contrast with the cruelty of man, so as to justify the question with which the article is introduced: "Which is the brute? An instance of animal sagacity and humanity, unequalled in our remembrance, took place before our door lately. An unfortunate dog, in order to make sport for some fools, had a pan tied to his tail, and was sent off on his travels towards Galt. He reached the village utterly exhausted, and lay down before the steps of Mr. Young’s tavern, eying most anxiously the horrid annoyance hung behind him, but unable to move a step farther to rid him- self of the torment. Another dog, a Scotch colley, came up at the same time, and, seeing the distress of his crony, laid himself gently down beside him, and gaining his confidence by a few caresses, pro- ceeded to gnaw the string by which the noisy ap- pendage was attached to his friend’s tail, and with about a quarter of an hour’s exertion, severed the cord, and started to his legs, with the pan hanging
- ↑ Darwin’s Journal.
