WILD-FOWL SHOOTING. 335 



whether we seek an animal that by Ms curious 

 motions will toll ducks up to the stand, or by Ids 

 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 Ls 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 



