a sportsman's hands, into a first-rate dog to shoot over.

These points in his favour should never be lost sight of, because
his increasing popularity on the show bench is apt to mislead many
of his admirers into the belief that he is an ornamental rather than
a utility dog. Nothing could be further from the fact. Nevertheless,
he has few equals as a house dog, being naturally cleanly in his
habits, affectionate in his disposition, an admirable watch, and an
extraordinarily adaptable companion.

As to his origin, there is considerable conflict of opinion, owing
to the natural difficulty of tracing him back to that period when
the dog-fancier, as he flourishes to-day, was all unknown, and the
voluminous records of a watchful Kennel Club were still undreamed
of. From time immemorial a sheepdog, of one kind or another, has
presided over the welfare of flocks and herds in every land. Probably,
in an age less peaceable than ours, this canine guardian was called
upon, in addition to his other duties, to protect his charges from
wolves and bears and other marauders. In that case it is very possible
that the early progenitors of the breed were built upon a larger and
more massive scale than is the sheepdog of to-day.

The herd dogs of foreign countries, such as the Calabrian of the
Pyrenees, the Himalayan drover's dog, and the Russian Owtchah, are
all of them massive and powerful animals, far larger and fiercer than
our own, though each of them, and notably the Owtchah, has many points
in common with the English bob-tail. It is quite possible that all
of them may trace their origin, at some remote period, to the same
ancestral strain. Indeed, it is quite open to argument that the
founders of our breed, as it exists to-day, were imported into England
at some far-off date when the duties of a sheepdog demanded of him
fighting qualities no longer necessary.

Throughout the nineteenth century, one finds conclusive evidence that
the breed was very fairly represented in many parts of England,
notably in Suffolk, Hampshire, and Dorsetshire, and also in Wales.
Youatt writes of it in 1845, Richardson in 1847, and "Stonehenge"
in 1859. Their descriptions vary a little, though the leading
characteristics are much the same, but each writer specially notes
the exceptional sagacity of the breed.

The dog was well known in Scotland, too, under the title of the
Bearded Collie, for there is little doubt that this last is merely
a variant