THE SETTER. 133 



not being able to acknowledge the scent, went off, clearly 

 imagining the bilch was in error. She, however, held on, 

 and in beautiful style brought us up direct to a covey. My 

 friend and I agreed that she must have been but little, if at 

 all, less than one hundred yards off when she first winded 

 the birds ; and it was clear to us that they could not have 

 been running, for the breeze came directly across the furrows, 

 and she had led us in the wind's eye. We thought the 

 point the more remarkable, as it is generally supposed that 

 the strong smell of turnips diminishes a dog's power of 

 scenting birds." 



The Setter's Mr. Huet tells the following story of the sagacity 

 Sagacity. o f the setter. " The gamekeeper had, on one oi 

 the short days of December, shot at and wounded a deer. 

 Hoping to run him down before night, he instantly put the 

 dog upon the track, which followed it at full speed, and soon 

 was out of sight. At length it grew dark, and the gamekeeper 

 returned home, thinking he should find the setter arrived 

 there before him ; but he was disappointed, and became ap- 

 prehensive that his dog might have lost himself, or fallen a 

 prey to some ravenous animal. The next morning, however, 

 we were all greatly rejoiced to see him come running into 

 the yard, whence he directly hastened to the door of my 

 apartment, and, on being admitted, ran, with gestures expres- 

 sive of solicitude and eagerness, to a corner of the room 

 where guns were placed. We understood the hint, and, taking 

 the guns, followed him. He led us not by the road which 

 he himself had taken out of the wood, but by beaten paths 

 half round it, and then by several wood-cutters' tracks in 

 different directions, to a thicket, where, following him a few 

 paces, we found the deer which he had killed. The dog 

 seems to have rightly judged that we should have been obliged 

 to make our way with much difficulty through almost the 

 whole length of the wood, in order to come to the deer in a 

 straight direction, and he therefore led us a circuitous but 



