BREAKING AND HANDLING. 297 



ment to the novice. This peculiarity is not as frequently 

 observable as is asserted by some writers. After marking a 

 bevy accurately after flushing it, the trainer may be unable 

 to find a single bird. The dog will take his casts to and 

 fro, wholly unconscious of the proximity of birds. If, un- 

 der these circumstances, the hunter will walk away to a 

 proper distance and keep quiet until the birds begin to call, 

 he can then return and secure point after point. 



Quails are so plentiful, their haunts so permanent, the 

 grounds so favorable for watching the work of a dog and 

 for walking or riding; the birds are so game and cunning, 

 yet withal so nicely adapted to the intelligent capabilities of 

 the dog, that it is not surprising that they are the game 

 birds, facile princeps, in the estimation of the professional 

 trainer. 



Ruffed grouse, while requiring a high grade of skill in 

 both hunter and shooter, are very poor for training pur- 

 poses; the conditions of dense cover, extreme wariness of 

 the birds at all times, and their limited number and habitat, 

 really make the training a special one, /. e., the dog has to 

 be taught to range close to the shooter, and to road with 

 greater caution and deliberation; the dogs are extremely 

 rare which can hunt ruffed grouse at a fast pace; such dogs 

 necessarily have superior intelligence. 



The woodcock is not worthy of consideration in dog 

 training. The superiority of the shooting in the North is 

 chiefly due to its being summer shooting, to the scarcity of 

 the birds, and to the imagination of the shooter. In the 

 last of December and early January, woodcock congregate 

 in vast numbers in the woods of Louisiana, and other sec- 

 tions near the Southern coast, frequenting such places as 

 have an undergrowth of clumps of briers, brush and patches 

 of switch cane, or in woods which are comparatively open 

 if the feeding grounds in that section are good. The most 



