104 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



go in parties of four, two of whom enter " the 

 cripple" with three or four setter dogs, while one 

 of the others remains on the bank, and the other 

 takes his place on the "drift" on the outside of 

 the cripple nearest the river. 



Spaniels, by the way, are held in little esteem 

 for this arduous sport, and they who use them 

 select a stock much stronger and hardier than 

 the little English cocker, which is worse than 

 useless. The last soon fag in the heavy, encum- 

 bered ground, and after a little experience in 

 what they are expected to do, learn to skulk, or 

 to answer their excited master's "hie on !" with 

 shrill, helpless cries of concern, as if to intimate 

 that they are sorry for it, but really the thing 

 will not do. Setters, being better able to stand 

 the work, on the contrary, take so kindly to it, 

 that they often give tongue on every bird, and 

 acquire a habit of flushing game, which, of course, 

 destroys their utility as field dogs. It is seldom 

 that even the best bred setter, if encouraged, sea- 

 son after season, to range and hunt out a cripple, 

 can be depended on out of it ; instances are, how- 

 ever, known, where dogs have seemed to com- 

 prehend exactly what was required of them, when 

 hunting the same description of bird in different 

 kinds of ground ; and we have heard of setters, 



