a
prompt obedience, and a deep-hearted tenderness, combined with
fearless courage. He is more sensitive to rebuke and punishment than
most dogs, and will nurse resentment to those who are unjust to him;
not viciously, but with an almost human plaintiveness which demands an
immediate reconciliation. He is staunch and firm as his native hills
to those who are kind to him, and for entering into battle with an
enemy there is no dog more recklessly daring and resolute.

Visitors to dog shows are disposed to believe that the Skye Terrier,
with its well-groomed coat that falls in smooth cascades down its
sides, and its veil of thick hair that obscures the tender softness of
its dark and thoughtful eyes, is meant only to look beautiful upon the
bench or to recline in comfortable indolence on silken cushions. This
is a mistake. See a team of Skyes racing up a hillside after a
fugitive rabbit, tirelessly burrowing after a rat, or displaying their
terrier strategy around a fox's earth or an otter's holt, and you will
admit that they are meant for sport, and are demons at it. Even their
peculiarity of build is a proof that they are born to follow vermin
underground. They are long of body, with short, strong legs, adapted
for burrowing. With the Dachshund they approximate more closely than
any other breeds to the shape of the badger, the weasel, and the
otter, and so many animals which Nature has made long and low in order
that they may inhabit earths and insinuate themselves into narrow
passages in the moorland cairns.

There can be no question that these dogs, which are so typically
Highland in character and appearance, as well as the Clydesdale, the
Scottish, the Dandie Dinmont, and the White Poltalloch terriers, are
all the descendants of a purely native Scottish original. They are all
inter-related; but which was the parent breed it is impossible to
determine.

It is even difficult to discover which of the two distinct types of
the Skye Terrier was the earlier--the variety whose ears stand alertly
erect or its near relative whose ears are pendulous. Perhaps it does
not matter. The differences between the prick-eared Skye and the
drop-eared are so slight, and the characteristics which they have in
common are so many, that a dual classification was hardly necessary.
The earliest descriptions and engravings of the breed present a
terrier considerably smaller than the type of to-day, carrying a
fairly profuse, hard coat, with s