SETTING REACTIONS OF BIRD DOGS TO TURTLES 



HAROLD C. BINGHAM 



Several years ago an incident was reported to me regarding 

 the setting response of a chicken dog to a snapping turtle. Mr. 

 W. W. Azeltine, the reporter of the incident, was an experi- 

 enced hunter and had had extensive experience with various 

 types of dogs. His interesting account of the incident was 

 recalled recently when, with a different dog, I observed a sim- 

 ilar response. 



In this note, I shall describe the two incidents that have 

 come to my attention. They are significant, it seems, when one 

 considers that both dogs were accustomed by nature and train- 

 ing to trail and "set" only warm blooded representatives of the 

 higher vertebrates. In each of the incidents, the dog evidently 

 confused the trail of a turtle with that of a prairie chicken. 

 The habitual method of trailing and setting prairie chickens was 

 characteristically adopted in response to the trail of a cold 

 blooded vertebrate. 



According to Mr. Azeltine's narrative, he was hunting with 

 a mongrel, Prince, in which shepherd and setter blood appar- 

 ently predominated. He had used the dog two seasons and in 

 a section of the country where prairie chickens were abundant. 

 The dog had had some experience with quail but, within the 

 knowledge of the narrator, with no other species of this class 

 of game birds. He regarded the dog as having an unusually 

 reliable " nose." 



While hunting on a fair day, Prince characteristically assumed, 

 at the edge of a field of stubble, a solid setting posture. When 

 encouraged to advance upon the expected game, the dog was 

 unusually reluctant making the hunter look for a bird to flush 

 at any moment. Prince, holding closely to the trail, was urged 

 slowly across the field of stubble and into the long grass of a 

 slough. At the end of the trail, he came upon a snapping 

 turtle, from which he turned at once and began hunting. 



