152 FRANK forester's FIELD SPORTS. 



to the right or left, affording much closer and easier shots, than 

 if we hunt them in the ordinary manner. 



T am aware that there is an objection to this, in the fact that 

 the dogs in some degree lose the favor of the wind ; but dogs, 

 properly broken to this sport, should quarter their ground regu- 

 larly before you, working with their noses up-wind, and cross- 

 ing and recrossing at every forty or fifty yards, and will find no 

 difficulty in pointing such birds as will lie to them. 



It is wonderful how easily dogs, which are always shot over 

 by the same man — he being one who knows his business — will 

 learn to cross and requarter their ground, turning to the slight- 

 est whistle, and following the least gesture of the hand. I have 

 seen old dogs turn their heads to catch their master's eye, if 

 they thought the whistle too long deferred ; and I lately lost an 

 old red Irish setter, which had been stone-deaf for his two last 

 seasons, but which I found no more difficulty in turning than 

 any other dog, so accurately did he know when to look for the 

 signal. 



"When a dog has once learned that it is by his master's will, 

 and not by his own, that he is to beat his ground, it is extraor- 

 dinary how eagerly he will consult, and how readily he will soon 

 come to perceive, his pleasure. 



I have repeatedly tested the two modes of shooting Snipe, up 

 and down wind ; and that with dogs of all kinds and conditions, 

 and I have no hesitation in declaring my conviction, that by work- 

 ing down-wind, especially in very Avild and very windy weather, 

 when birds lie the worst, one-third more shots may be got, and 

 double the number of birds killed, than by giving your dogs, as 

 it is called, the wind in their noses. In the latter mode, it is 

 true, you will have your dogs continually drawing, and perhaps 

 pointing, and will have the satisfaction of hearing the " scaipe, 

 scaipc," of bird after bird, as he rises out of distance, and of 

 seeing him zig-zagging it away up-wind, at a rate which sets 

 even your blue cartridge at defiance. 



Beating down-wind, on the contrary, the birds, headed by 

 yourself and your dog, are likely enough to get confused and 



