$20 DUCK SHOOTING. 



watched him out of sight. Twenty minutes passed, 

 and no Taylor. Half an hour went by, and no signs 

 of the dog. I felt sorry we let the dog go, and we did 

 not fire a gun after the dog left. Bob looked down his 

 nose and said he guessed he'd seen the last of old Tay- 

 lor. We packed up and got ready to go home, when 

 George sang out : 'Ki ! yi ! Bress de Lawd ! Heah's 

 Taylah!' And, sure enough, here came the good old 

 dog, nearly fagged out, staggering along the shore, 

 dragging that big swan. He had been gone a little 

 over three-quarters of an hour."* 



Another example of the readiness with which these 

 dogs adapt themselves to circumstances is given by 

 Mr. J. G. Smith, of Algona, Iowa, who says: "We 

 had had a fine morning's shoot near a large slough, 

 where there were quite a good many ducks and geese. 

 About nine o'clock we thought the flight was over, so 

 we gathered up our birds and started for the wagon. 

 The country around us was all burnt over. We got out 

 of the slough and onto the high ground, and were 

 walking slowly along, when we saw a large Canada 

 goose making for the slough. We sat down on the 

 burnt ground and I called. The goose answered and 

 turned directly toward us. I called again, and the 

 goose came on, until he got within fifty yards of us. I 

 told my friend to shoot, as he would come no nearer. 

 He shot, and the goose fell almost to the ground. 

 When within about four feet of the ground he seemed 

 to recover, and I told the bitch to go. Away she went 

 after him. They went over a ridge about one-half mile 



*For other examples of the work of these dogs see p. 6ll. 



