210 WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 
whether we seek an animal that by his curious 
motions will toll ducks up to the stand, or by his 
natural intelligence will aid the punt-shooter in 
recovering his game, it is at the South alone that 
we can find any admitted pedigree. 
In the Northern States, however, the “ native,” 
as he is called at the West—probably from the fact 
that he is invariably a foreigner—selects any pro- 
mising pup, and by means of much flogging and 
steady work trains him to a faint knowledge of his 
duties. A young dog loves to fetch, and will take 
pleasure in chasing a ball thrown for him round the 
room, and if he is a water-dog, naturally brings from 
the water a‘stick cast into it, so that the routine part 
is easily impressed upon him; but an animal with 
this proficiency alone is scarcely worth keeping. 
A good dog must have intuitive quickness of 
thought and judgment; he must know enough to 
lie perfectly motionless when a flock 1s approaching ; 
he must understand how to retrieve his birds judi- 
ciously, bringing the cripples first; he must have 
perseverance, endurance, and great personal vigor. 
A duck is cunning, and to outwit its many artifices 
and evasions the retriever must have greater shrewd- 
ness; it can skulk, and hide, and swim, and sneak, 
and he must have the patience to follow it, and the 
strength to capture it. Wonderful stories are told of 
the many exhibitions of what seems much like human 
reason, evinced by some of the celebrated retrievers. 
But probably the rarest quality for a dog or man 
to possess, and the most necessary to both, if they 
