218 PRANK SCIILEY'S PARTRIDGE AND PHEASANT SHOOTING. 



work, and select that one which shows the greater capa- 

 city for adapting himself to all wants. 



I have said that the Spaniel has a limited sphere, and is 

 consequently unable to compete with either Pointer or Set- 

 ter, but lest I be accused of injustice towards this willing 

 and faithful little fellow, I will pause a moment to con- 

 sider what his chief uses are. According to his most ardent 

 admirers his proper place is in the thick covers haunted 

 by the Ruffed Grouse, or Woodcock, and his work consists 

 in finding these birds and flushing them for the gun, first 

 giving notice of the game by a whimper that swells into 

 a sharp yelp as the bird takes wing. Now, granting (to 

 save argument upon this point) that this is the most sports- 

 manlike and killing way of hunting cover, it must at least 

 be conceded that the Spaniel is of no use in the open, where 

 from staunchness at point we can allow dogs thus endowed 

 to range over ten times the ground, and consequently to 

 find ten times the game, that a Spaniel could, since he must 

 be hunted within gun-shot all the time in order to give any 

 shots. Comparatively little of our hunting is in such very 

 thick cover that a good brush shot cannot go up to his Set- 

 ter when on a point and kill his bird as it gets up. I have 

 indeed seen such places, and have often found birds quite 

 plentiful in them, owing to the fact that the difficulty of 

 the shooting kept hunters away. Under such circum- 

 stances Spaniels would certainly prove killing dogs. I 

 know, too, that some men use them to tree Ruffed Grouse; 

 but as I am writing for those true sportsmen who would 

 scorn to pot this gallant bird, and who esteem a bag not 

 from its numbers, but for the skill by which it is obtained, I 

 will not make further mention of this practice, but pass 

 on, considering that I have sustained my assertion regard- 

 ing the Spaniel. 



The dog that we want must work equally well in cover 

 and open. He must be staunch enough to range the stub- 

 ties or prairies for the Quail or Pinnated Grouse, and tough 

 enough to hunt day after daj- through cat-briars and thick- 

 ets for Woodcock and Ruffed Grouse, and over wet, cold 



