breed is due, again made entries and won chief honours with their little dogs Rambler and Bitters. Two years later Captain Mackie was the most successful competitor, securing the leading prizes with his historical Dundee and his lovely little bitch Glengogo, and so we are brought right down to the present time.

Much has been written of the various strains of the Scottish terrier, but such are of little account, as, although they were kept by many of the Highland sportsmen on their estates, and used for hunting purposes and for killing vermin, all had sprung from a common origin. They had not sufficiently distinguishing features from each other to merit a separation, though every laird said his own breed was the best and the only one to be found in its original purity. However, be this as it may, there is no doubt in my mind that this terrier had inhabited Scotland long before modern writers told us what they knew about dogs, and that all the stories about the Skye terriers being in reality a half-bred poodle or Maltese, made so by one of the breed washed up from a shipwrecked vessel on the coast of Skye, is all nonsense-a traveller's tale and no more. The so-called Aberdeen terrier is the Scottish terrier pure and simple, and the Poltalloch terrier, mentioned in "Dogs of Scotland," is a yellowish

white variety kept by the Malcolms at Poltalloch, in Argyllshire, where the strain is carefully preserved. These terriers only differ in colour from the ordinary Scottish terrier. A white puppy occasionally appears in a litter of the latter as it does sometimes in deerhounds Of course, if these white puppies were reared and bred from, a strain of that colour would eventually be perpetuated, and probably this has been the case in the first instance at Poltalloch. Some years ago Mr. Thomson Gray procured a white bitch of pure pedigree for Captain Keene, a wellknown member of the Kennel Club. I have a portrait of her by me now, and she is certainly a Scottish terrier in every particular, and a great favourite with her owner, who entered her in the "Stud Book" as White Heather. From her, Captain Keene has had three litters to ordinary coloured dogs of the breed, but not one of the puppies has yet taken after their dam, all of them, strangely enough, being either black or very dark brindle.

It is a somewhat remarkable fact that this white Scottish terrier is occasionally produced in the ordinary course from dark coloured parents; the Scottish deerhound likewise, but not frequently, throws a similar puppy in the same way, and Mr. J. Pratt has been successful in breeding two or three Skye terriers pretty nearly pure white. In alluding

to these off coloured specimens one must not forget that fawn or sandy Scottish terriers are by no means infrequent, and two or three years ago Mr. A. Maxwell, of Croft, near Darlington, won several prizes with a dog of this colour, and a very good specimen of his race too. We all know that the fawn colour in deerhounds and in Skye terriers, although not so prevalent as once was the case, is still by no means uncommon.

The allusion to the Poltalloch terrier in the "Dogs of Scotland" elicited the following communication from Col. Malcolm, R.E., to the author of the work in question: "The Poltalloch terriers still exist in the Poltalloch Kennels, and I hope that your recognition of them may make it more possible to keep them up. They are not invariably white, but run between creamy white and sandy. A good one at his best looks like a handsome deerhound, reduced in some marvellous way. They are gameness itself, and terrible poachers. They love above all things to get away with a young retriever, and ruin him for ever, teaching him everything he ought not to know. As for wisdom, make one your friend and he will know everything and do it. I have known one whose usual amusement was rat-killing, and who had never retrieved, go into a hole in tender ice and bring out a wild duck, because,

I suppose, he thought it a shame to waste it when his master had shot it. This chap had a great friend, a mastiff bitch, and he used to swim along water-rat infested streams, and she applying her nose to the landward hole would snort a rat out of his wits into the water, and into the terrier's jaws, who, silently swimming, was keeping pace with his friend. They are said in the kennels to have a trick of suddenly turning upon one of their number and putting it to death, and when they do this they leave but little mark of their work, as they eat their victim. They are kept for work-fox and otter hunting. They have consequently to be kept small, and without the power which seems to be of such value on the show bench. This could easily be got by feeding up, but then the dogs would be of no use in the fox cairns. As it is, they often push in between rocks they cannot escape from, and so the best get lost."

Of the original Scottish terriers some there were with semi-erect ears, others with prick ears, as so admirably produced in Mr. Wardle's picture at the commencement of this chapter. The prick ears are acknowledged now as the more fashionable, though I fancy years ago the semi-prick ear was the more common. I have seen some excellent little dogs with semi-erect ears, as good as those

with erect ears, but the tyrant Fashion at present holds only the latter the correct article, and by his opinion we have to abide. Classes have been provided for each of the varieties at some of the leading Scottish shows, but those for dogs with their ears "down" have never been well supported. However, the fact must not be overlooked that as puppies the ears are usually carried thrown back or forwards, some even not attaining the correct and erect position until six or eight months old. The hard, crisp coat, too, does not always appear until the puppy is casting its first set of teeth. And this hard coat is a sine quá non, and no prize ought to be given to any Scottish terrier unless the coat is thoroughly hard and strong and crisp and close -it is the hard-haired Scottish terrier, a fact which some judges have sadly overlooked. Another defect too common and often over-looked is to be found in the bat-like ears with round tips, which some breeders consider to point to a cross with an impure strain. However, they are very unsightly, and ought to act as a very severe handicap on dogs possessing such aural appendages.

There is no denying the fact, even if anyone wished to do so, which I do not believe is possible, that during the last half dozen years the Scottish terrier has advanced very much in popularity. It