WILD SPORT IN BRITTANY. 53 



action; the tail, that indicator of all a dog's thoughts, that 

 silent tongue that explains all he means, is chopped off in puppy- 

 hood, and a mere stump is left, scarcely longer than that of a 

 Salisbury sheep-dog. Shame on the braconnier, for his utter 

 disregard of the pointer's beauty and graceful movement ! Better 

 might he have rounded his ears, as we do those of the fox-hound, 

 than mutilate the tail in such barbarous fashion. The former 

 operation would be far more serviceable, and, at the same time, 

 less disfiguring to the appearance of the dog. What a sorry 

 object a stump-tailed pointer would cut side by side with those 

 grand animals exhibited in that class at our National Dog Shows ! 

 And yet, over and through the rough cover-land of Brittany, the 

 latter, as I have abundantly tested, will bear no comparison with 

 his coarser congener. He is worth a parish pound-full of the 

 other for the scrub work required of a pointer in that country. 



But to the sport. It was our turn now to hoist the hat ; the 

 five birds escaping had dropped in a genet, a plot of broom, on the 

 opposite side of the valley ; but before Kergoorlas and St. Prix 

 could reach the spot a sturdy peasant, accoutred in a brown, 

 shaggy goat-skin jacket, shambled up from the valley below, 

 whence he had doubtless been watching our operations, and, with 

 the aid of his stump-tail dog, kicked the birds singly up, and 

 actually bagged four out of five of them before our friends gained 

 the enclosure. This is a land of freedom and equality at least 

 so say the modern French songs \ and certainly if a poor peasant 

 braconnUr could take this liberty, as he did with impunity, there 

 must be some ground of truth in their burden. He had just 

 knocked over his fourth bird as Kergoorlas and St. Prix topped 

 the fence close to him and, so far from being either surprised or 

 even conscious of doing what he had not a perfect right to do, he 

 lifted up his broad-brimmed hat, and at once commenced chaffing 

 St. Prix, whom he evidently knew, with coming too late to share 

 the sport he had just been enjoying. " But come," said he, with 



