SHOOTING AS IT WAS, AND AS IT IS. 9 



moment, if a liaro or rabbit gets up under tlieir 

 feet, or if tlie same is shot at and missed, the 

 setters drop or stop to the gun, and never attempt 

 to chase. All this is very beautiful, and to go out 

 by myself with these setters, or with a second gun 

 as my companion who will attend to my sugges- 

 tions, is to me the very bliss of that kind of 

 sport. 



How much more agreeable it is to have this 

 curious canine conduct to watch, and to be warned 

 by it of the immediate presence of game, than 

 to go tramping and plodding on in a line of 

 march, perhaps for a considerable distance, with- 

 out a shot — reveries and speculations on matters 

 far removed from the feathered tribes and fields 

 rendering you unmindful of the gun, and careless 

 of, or unprepared for, the instantaneous demand 

 for unerring aim that a small, brown, swift-winged 

 bird so suddenly requires. 



I know not why, but^ through my long and 

 constant experience, in all my endeavours, I have 

 never been able to make the Lords and 

 Commons, and thence the keepers, aware of the 

 mischief occasioned by permitting the human voice 

 or whistle to be heard by creatures thoroughly 



