TERRIER, or Canis terrarius, a variety of the dog-kind, which is of different colours, being sometimes spotted, though generally of a liver, or black hue: its body seldom exceeds 18 inches in length, and the head is embellished with short, smooth, pendent ears.
Terriers are very useful to agriculturists, especially for exterminating rats, pole-cats, and similar depredators. Farther, these animals are remarkable for their vigilance, and are therefore frequently employed as house-dogs; but their principal services consist in hunting badgers, foxes, rabbits, and other quadrupeds which burrow under ground; because they enter the holes of such wild creatures, and either kill or draw them out of their hiding-places.—An account of the diseases to which terriers are liable, the reader will find in the article Dog.