90 TO THE POINTER. 



which s\varin everywhere. Excepting foxes, indeed, 

 which are sought after solely for their skins, hardly any 

 one would seem to make the least exertion to destroy 

 noxious animals. 



"\Vhrn thus shooting Black-Cock with the pointer in 

 the more open country, one not unfrequently falls in with 

 partridges, ducks, snipes, &c., and when on the confines 

 of the great woods, with Capercali also, of which birds I 

 have at times shot several. On one occasion, out of a 

 family of five, I bagged four in less than an hour, 

 and this late in the season, when the poults were 

 full grown. 



But far fewer Black-Cock are shot to the pointer 

 than to the 'Fogel-Hiuid ' described when speaking of the 

 Capercali partly because the pointer is all but unknown 

 in the far north, but principally because very many of the 

 peasants, from one end of Scandinavia to the other, 

 possess a cur of some kind that will " tree " a bird ; and 

 as these men not only shoot pretty well, but spend much 

 time in the pursuit of game, the slaughter committed 

 by them amongst the Black-Cock, and other forest 

 birds, is very great. More than one chasseur has 

 assured me, indeed, that on excursions of a day or two, 

 he has not unfrequently filled a sack with the spoil. 

 And this I can well believe, because in the early part of 

 the season the poults often sit so close as to be with 

 difficulty driven, by the dog at least, from their porch of 

 which a notable example is given by .M . \\illielm von 

 Wright, who says : 



"On one occasion we heard the dog nhalln x/nnil, 

 that is, challenge from one and the same spot, on the 

 opposite side of a lake near our house. This was between 

 ten and eleven o'clock in the morning, but no one thought 

 it worth his \\hile goini; up to him. As, however, the dog 

 OO&tintted to hark, my lather, who supposed it to be a 



