168 MANUAL FOE YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



" I always teach one, at least, of my dogs to bring his 

 game, which saves a world of trouble, both in covert and 

 out of it, but never allow him to stir for the birds until 

 after loading." 



The writer is an Englishman, which accounts for the 

 allusion to the moors and the early part of September, 

 which are not applicable to this country, but I preferred 

 to let it stand and comment on it at leisure. 



Our summer shooting, in the hottest part of the year, 

 from July through August, is only for woodcock, and lies 

 invariably in wet ground, and almost invariably in covert ; 

 in no case, therefore, at this season is the setter likely to 

 suffer from thirst, and so to prove inferior to the pointer, 

 which really has the advantage over him in supporting 

 extreme dry heat. Where the shooting is in thick coverts, 

 the setter has the best of it. 



Again, in the autumn shooting, which does not com- 

 mence until the end of October, there is much more of 

 cold than of heat to be endured, and, the springs and 

 rivers being ordinarily full, there is never any difficulty 

 of procuring enough water for the thirstiest of dogs. 



On the grouse-mountains in Pennsylvania, and among 

 scrub oaks and burnt woodlands, I have found the well- 

 feathered legs and full toe-tufts of setters to give them 

 great advantage over the barefooted pointers, which I 

 have frequently seen the necessity of hunting in buckskin 

 boots. 



In the southern country where quail-shooting, or par- 

 tridge-shooting, as it is there termed, is followed in sultry 

 weather, the lands are so irriguous and so well watered as 



