I 



SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOB FIELD-WORK. 9 



flying bird — the calculation to be made varies, according to the distance of the object, 

 its velocity, its course and the wind, from a few inches to several feet ; practice will finally 

 render it intuitive. 



§2. — DOGS. 



A Good Dog is one of the most faithful, respectful, affectionate and sensible of brutes ; 

 deference to such rare qualities demands a chapter, however V)rief. A trained dog'is the indis- 

 pensable servant of the sportsman in his pursuit of most kinds of game ; but I trust I am guilty 

 (.)f no discourtesy to the noble animal, when I say that he is a luxury rather than a necessity tcy 

 the collector — a pleasant companion, who knows almost everything except how to talk, who 

 converses with his eyes and ears and tail, shares comforts and discomforts with equal alacrity, 

 and occasionally makes himself useful. So far as a collector's work tallies with that of a 

 sportsman, the dog is equally useful to both ; but finding and telling of game aside, your dog's 

 services are restricted to companionship and retrieving. He may, indeed, flush many sorts of 

 birds for you ; but he does it, if at all, at random, while capering about ; for the brute intellect 

 is limited after all, and cannot comprehend a naturalist. The best trained setter or pointer 

 that ever marked a quail could not be made to understand what you are about, and it would 

 ruin him for sporting purposes if he did. Take a well-bred dog out with you, and the chances 

 are he will soon trot home in disgust at your performances with jack-spaiTows and tomtits. It 

 implies such a lowering and perversion of a good dog's instincts to make him really a useful 

 servant of yours, that I am half inclined to say nothing about retrieving, and tell you to make 

 a companion of your dog, or let him alone. I was followed for several years by '' the best dog 

 I ever saw" (every one's gun, dog, and child is the best ever seen), and a first-rate retriever; 

 yet I always preferred, when practicable, to pick up my own birds, rather than let a delicate 

 plumage into a dog's mouth, and scolded away the poor brute so often, that she very properly 

 returned the compliment, in the end, by retrieving just when she felt like it. However, we 

 remained the best of friends. Any good setter, pointer, or spaniel, and some kinds of curs, 

 may be trained to retrieve. The great point is to teach them not to " mouth " a bird ; it may 

 be accomplished by sticking pins in the ball with which their early lessons are taught. Such 

 dogs are particularly useful in bringing birds out of the water, and in searching for them when 

 lost. One point in training should never be neglected: teach a dog what ''to heel " means, 

 and make him obey this command. A riotous brute is simply unendurable under any 

 circumstances. 



§3. — VARIOUS SUGGESTIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FIELD-WORK. 



To be a Good Collector, and nothing more, is a small affair ; great skill may be ac- 

 quired in the art, without a single quality commanding respect. One of the most vulgar, 

 brutal, and ignorant men I ever knew was a sharp collector and an excellent taxidermist. 

 Collecting stands much in the same relation to ornithology that the useful and indispensable 

 office of an apothecary bears to the duties of a physician. A field-naturalist is always more or 

 less of a collector ; the latter is sometimes found to know almost nothing of natural history 

 worth knowing. The true ornithologist goes out to study birds alive and destroys some of 

 them simply because that is the only way of learning their structure and technical characters. 

 There is much more about a bird than can be discovered in its dead body, — how much more, 

 then, than can be found out from its stuffed skin ! In my humble opinion the man who only 

 gathers birds, as a miser money, to swell his cabinet, and that other man who gloats, as miser- 

 like, over the same hoard, both work on a plane far beneath where the enlightened naturalist 

 .stands. One looks at Nature, and never knows that she is beautiful ; the other knows she is 

 beautiful, as even a corpse may be ; the naturalist catches her sentient expression, and knows 



