20 MAY 1899, Page 16

D OG -STORIES.

[TO THE EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR."]

SIR,—Your story in a recent number of the Spectaw of the dog who buried the kitten alive may perhaps be corroborated by two others within the experience of the writer. In both jealousy appears to have been the motive for the interment of the rival. A mongrel terrier, excessively devoted to his mistress, was very jealous of her love for a kitten. Often when the latter had been caressed by the lady, the former would go off and scratch a hole in the garden, and then, fetching the kitten, would bury it therein. To prevent the kitten forcing its way out, the terrier would post himself upon the grave, and so, unhappily for his purpose, would guide to the speedy rescue of the latter by its friends. Once he chose a pail of soot for the death torah. At other times the dog and the kitten were good friends and playmates. Another dog, this time a spaniel, resentful of the importation of a tortoise, which her master had bought for his children and given the range of the lawn, determined to put her rival to death by the same method. Very shortly after its coming, both the dog and the tortoise could nowhere be found. Presently the 'dog returned-with her paws covered with earth ; not so the tortoise. Suspicious of the spaniel, her master coaxed her to come and look for it, when she guiltily drew off to the garden and stopped before a small mound of earth; which, when removed with a stick, revealed the tortoise. He who hides can find. Perhaps I may add a story of a skye. He, too, belonged to the owner of the terrier, the culprit ' of the ' first story. The" skye's favourite place was, as it should be, at his mistress's feet. Ile was generally quite well-behaved, but would have lost his character one day had he been without excuse. The skye was running in front of his mistress and her husband, and sud- denly surprised them by flying at a poor girl and holding her prisoner. When they came to her rescue they found her to be a child to whom had been given a pair of the skye's mistress's shoes. To secure what he deemed to be a thief of his mis- tress's property, and this the shoes that had so tenderly