DOGS AMONG THE SHEEP IN NEW ZEALAND.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1136, 8 December 1893, Page 6

DOGS AMONG THE SHEEP IN NEW ZEALAND.

(Corn hill Magazine.) It is doubtful if In times of peace the ear of man can be startled with any cry w-hich carries with it, an uglier significance than “There are dogs among the sheep 1” Inquire of those who have ridden among a big mob of sheep after it has suffered a week’s worrying by dogs, and you will find how few of them will have the hardihood to say that the impression cheated pn their minds by viewing the attendant horrors is likely ever to fade entirely from their memories. Indeed, they will probably tell you that once having ldoked upon the 'sickening sight, nothing, unless theif duties - compel them to do so, could induce them to repeat the experience. The number of sheep killed outright, or bitten, and left to dip in misery, in no wise sums up the havoc wrought. The state of utter rout and restlessness into which they are thrown has also to be taken into account; and therein lies the greatest mischief. What devilish subtlety, what hellish malignity prompts the action passes our understanding, bat the dogs invariably make their fiercest onsets at* lambing time. The damage thereby done is multiplied two—nay twenty—fold, for think of the injury done to a lot of ewes heavy with lambs (even though they be not actually bitten) by being harried in wild confusion for nights together over the ragged surface of those stony ridges ! Adept killers rounfi up a mob, and, passing swiftly from one victim to another, give each a clean sharp bite in some vital place; and although there are some dogs that will destroy in this manner as many as sixty or eighty sheep in a single night, tho loss incurred is not, after all, so very serious. It is the dogs that are enticed away from their legitimate shepherding pursuits, and inveigled into joining these nocturnal depredations, which, play the very mischief with the sheep. These, Jiaving no previous, experience, do not go to work in the business like way of the skilled killers, but aimlessly chase tlffi sheep hither and thither through the darkness, biting and gnawing, till the whole mob is scattered about the run v in huddled, panic-stricken little lots. 'Then how plaintive is the cry of lambs seeking mothers which hours before were dragged down and left to die 'in agony, or escaped that death pn]y ' |;o meet another by leaping headlong over'some precipice in their blind flight for lifel days jh'e wretched pttle mites, pitifully bleating, will wander about till starvation or the everpresent hawk releases them from thejr misery. This may seem strange to the Northern reafler, fiut it: must be qnfleyst'oqfl that, with sqqh fejge flocks $$ flspastqrfi oq Austral lands, feafjqg lsmbs by hanfl is put of the Qcpasjonqlly a pet is kept qboqt tfle flpiqesteqd as? a plaything for. tfle chijdren, b,qt opt o,iy the ruq, -ffhen qqything flapppns tQ the life floes nqt loqg abide with fler offspring. 4.8 an immediate result qf the dog’s Vjrork tfle pfetqre is aafl enough to contemplate; but think of the scene when the mother, though sorely bitten, still lives and continues to give to her young What sustenance and protection she is able! With the dawning the dogs betake themselves off to a safe hidingplace till night shall again favour a renewal of their work ; but the dying sheep is relieved of their presence only to be placed at the mercy of another enemy, more cruel, if possible, than they. A screech high in heaven causes

.aces forward, stamps her foot, and turning, calls her lamb fearfully to her side. At first the brave mother is able to repel the attacks of her feathered foe, but as the minutes dreep slowly by, and her strength rapidly diminishes* the kea comes nearer and nearer with every swoop till at length it alights upon the woolly back. For a time the ewe has sufficient strength to drive it off, but each moment she becomes more dazed and exhausted with suffering; each moment the contest becomes more unequal, and the certainty ot some further horror being added to her approaching death more sure. Closer sounds the rustle of the vermilion and golflen-bued pinions, closer the exultant screech of ghastly anticipation, till at length the helpless and beaten sheep makes one last effort to scare off her assailant, fails, and sinks to the earth as sinks a stone. In an instant the kea darts upon its prey, drags apart the wool with its talons, cuts open the twitching flesh with its sharp beak, and diving its head into fhe body, tears forth the reeking kidney fat it has learned to love so well, and devours it before the breath has left its victim’s body.