280 MODERN TRAINING. 



thought were not always habitual. All acts require thought 

 and study in their primal stages ; only by long continued 

 repetition do they become habitual. 



When the gun is fired and the dog is ordered to Find, there 

 is then an exhibition of pure mind. There is no bird in 

 sight. Hunting then for a dead bird, he shows a high 

 degree of understanding, and deduction of effects from 

 causes. 



Some of the common acts which are supposed to be purely 

 instinctive, such as pointing and following by scent, are, in 

 a great measure, due to intelligence. The setter and pointer, 

 when they first start a rabbit, follow by sight. Only by 

 several failures do they learn to use their noses, and then 

 they learn intelligently by degrees. In pointing birds the 

 first attempts are very crude, and only become perfected by 

 many opportunities. Undoubtedly they chase instinctively, 

 but knowledge of methods only comes from experience. 

 Hounds require great experience to solve the intricacies of 

 the fox's cunning, and the most irregular capabilities are 

 shown conformably to the irregular grades of intelligence. 

 In pursuit, hounds do not depend entirely on the nose ; if 

 puzzled they will make, wide detours to hit off the trail, thus 

 trusting to their brains. Some setters and pointers will go 

 entirely around the edge of a field to hit off the trail of any 

 birds that have entered or left it ; if puzzled on a trail, 

 they make a wide circular cast to find the true trail ; thus 

 the dog does not wholly depend on the functional powers of 

 nose to guide him in pursuit of his prey. The necessity for 

 experience to perform good field work is known to all. The 

 difference in the capabilities of two dogs of equal natural 

 powers, the one having full experience, the other having 

 none, is so great that every sportsman has observed the dis- 

 parity. But it has been satisfactorily shown that instinct 

 requires no experience ; in fact, is independent of it. And 



