ANOTHER WATCH-DOG.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPEOTATOR."] Sin,--I can give an instance as convincing as that of Miss Marsh-Caldwell of the way in which a true watch-dog will measure the extent of his duties. I lived for many years- opposite a wood, in which the game at first was preserved. I had a dog named Prin,' who had begun by being a gardener's dog, but having caught the distemper and been unskilfully treated by his master he remained nearly blind, and was loft on my hands by the man when he quitted my service. The dog was a great coward, but good-tempered and affectionate, and the partial loss of sight seemed to have developed greatly the senses both of hearing and smell, so that he was reoog-. nised as a capital watch-dog. He was promoted to the kitchen, and would have been promoted to the drawing-room but for the obstreperousness of his affection, which seemed to know no bounds if he was admitted even into the hall. I slept at that time in a room over the kitchen, fronting the road. One night I was awakened by Prin ' growling, and, after a time, giving a snappish bark underneath me. I got out of bed and, throw- ing up the sash, listened at the window, where, after a time) Ij heard slight noises, which convinced me that some one or more persons were biding in the shrubbery between the house and the road, whom I supposed to be burglars. I called out, "Who's there P" without, of course, eliciting any answer, and, after a time, I heard the click of the further gate (there being two, one opposite my house, the other opposite its semi- detached neighbour, and out of my sight), after which all was quiet. But I had noticed that from the moment of my getting out of bed 'Prin' had not uttered a sound. The same thing happened seven or eight times, and always in the same way, Prim ' growling or barking till he heard me get out of bed, and then holding his tongue, as feeling that he had fulfilled his duty in warning his master, and that all responsibility now devolved upon me. The secret of the matter I discovered to be that poachers, with no burglarious intentions towards me, used the shrubbery as a hiding-place before getting over the opposite paling into the wood.
One other instance of Prin's ' sagacity I will also mention. I had a black cat, with white breast, named Toffy,' between whom and 'Prin' there was peace, though not affection. There was also another black cat, with white breast, that prowled about, an outlaw cat, who made free with my chickens when he could ! It was a bitter winter, and the snow had lain already for days on the ground. I was walking one Sunday morning in my garden, Prin' being out with me. He quitted me to go under a laurel-hedge bounding a shrubbery, and presently began barking loudly. I went towards him, and saw a white-breasted cat sitting stretched under the laurels, with front paws doubled under him, which I took to be Toffy' asleep. I scolded Prin' for disturbing Toffy,' and he stopped barking, but remained on the spot whilst I continued my walk. Presently—say two or three minutes after—I heard him barking still more loudly than before, and so per- sistently that I returned to the spot. Noticing that the cat had never moved through all the noise, I crept up under the bushes, and found that it was not Toffy' asleep, but the out- law cat, dead,—evidently of cold. Thus my poor purblind watch-dog had (1), barked to draw my attention to what appeared to him an unusual phenomenon ; (2), held his tongue in deference to my (supposed) superior wisdom, when I told him he was making a mistake ; (3), not being, however, satisfied in his mind, remained to investigate till he was con- vinced he had not been mistaken ; (4), called my attention to the facts still more instantly till I was satisfied of them for myself. Could homo sapiens have done more P—I am, Sir, &o., J. M. L.
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