Sheep Dog　牧羊犬

The dog that you see here looking quite maternal with her family around her,is the sheep dog,the shepherd's faithful and invaluable friend.It is the most sagacious and intelligent of all dogs,and volumes of anecdotes might be written of its intelligence and affection.Mr.St.John,in his Highland Sports,tells the following:“A shepherd once,to prove the quickness of his dog,who was lying before the fire where we were talking,said to me in the middle of a sentence concerning something else,'I'm thinking,sir,the cow is in the potatoes;'when the dog,who appeared to be asleep,immediately jumped up,and leaping through the open window and on to the roof of the house,where he could get a view of the potato field,and not seeing the cow there,he looked into the farm-yard,where she was,and finding that all was right,returned to his old position before the fire.”

瞧这只狗，膝下儿女成群、浑身散发着母爱的光辉。这是一只牧羊犬，既是牧羊人忠实的朋友，也是他们的无价之宝。在所有的狗中，牧羊犬最有悟性，最聪明。关于它的智慧和忠诚，有很多逸闻趣事，可以写成好几本书呢。圣·约翰先生在《高原运动》一文中就讲了这样一件事情：“一次，我们围坐在火边聊天，跟前躺着牧羊犬。为了证明牧羊犬反应灵敏，牧羊人说着说着突然冒了一句与我们谈话主题无关的话：‘先生，我在想母牛跑到土豆地里去了。’话音刚落，似乎正在熟睡的牧羊犬一下子蹦了起来，从开着的窗户冲了出去，跃上屋顶，查看土豆地里的情况，土豆地里没有母牛；它又朝院子望去，原来母牛在那里，一切正常。于是，它又重新回到火边躺了下来。”