88 



=^^ 



the type used for quail, although a stauuch slow dog that noses out the 

 trail will work in a very satisfactory manner along the hedge-rows or 

 fences. Either type, with a little special instruction, will soon work sat- 

 isfactorily either along the fences or hedge-rows or in the swamps, but 

 as the pheasant has a marked tendency to run, I prefer a fast dog that 

 hunts with his head high, makes close points and covers his field rapidly. 

 Such an individual makes his points so close to the bird that it is not 

 likely to run, and on the whole, he is less likely to flush his birds. A 

 pheasant which has several times been pointed by a slow dog is likely to 

 run and flush wild. 



In order to work satisfactorily along a fence or hedge-row, the dog 

 must be under perfect control. A wild dog is likely to run down a fence 

 or hedge when a bird has been shot and put up other birds out of gun- 

 shot and to chase a bird if he sees one running on the ground. 



SCHOOLING WILD DOGS.— It is comparatively easy, however, 

 to break a dog of these tendencies, and my method has been to take a 

 pheasant from the aviaries before the shooting season opens, clip one 

 wing so that the bird can make a flight of only fifty or a hundred feet, 

 attach to the leg of the bird a strong cord of about twenty-five feet in 

 length, and release it in a meadow where the grass is sufficiently high 

 and thick to prevent its being readily seen. I then take a piece of clothes- 

 line forty or fifty feet in length, form a slipping noose in one end, and 

 fit this around the dog's neck. As the string always trails over the 

 grass it is easy to determine exactly where the bird is, and when the dog 

 approaches the pheasant sufficiently close to make a point, the attendant 

 stops him with the line, and I go on and flush the bird. If the dog 

 attempts to break his point or follow the bird, the attendant again checks 

 him with the line. It is apparent that many points may be obtained 

 in a very short time and the dog soon learns that he must not follow or 

 chase the birds. I then work the bird into thinner cover where the dog 

 can see the bird on the ground, and if, on approaching, he attempts to 

 chase the bird, the attendant checks him with the line. It is not 

 usually necessary that a dog which has been broken on cpiail should be 

 taken out more than two or three times in this manner before he has 

 thoroughly learned that he must not chase birds when flushed, or when 

 he sees them running on the ground, and when this has been accom- 

 plished the dog will be found very serviceable. 



METHOD GIVES REAL SPORT.— I have taken experienced 

 sportsmen on our preserve and tried them out with pheasants planted as 

 above described, and also on wild l)irds, and they have been unable to dis- 

 tinguish between the wild birds and the birds which had just been released. 



