64 Duck-shooting in Wermlandy SiJoeden, 



the south, and as of course T shot against the wind, I often really 

 had trouble to get my gun up and hold it steady. I never saw so 

 many snipe in one day in my life, nor did 1 ever see them lie so 

 well. I had a rare steady retriever wdth me, and never lost a bird. 

 And now a word or two about this aforesaid retriever. 



Some few years since I recollect reading in the Field the 

 following remarks from, I think, the Hon. G. Berkeley, " That if 

 he had a dog to break, he would trust it to no one's hands but those 

 of Anthony Savage." I always had the greatest ambition to 

 become possessed of a first-rate retriever. Luckily, chance brought 

 me in correspondence wdth this \-ery Mr. A. Savage (who, by the 

 way, is a very good ornithologist). I w^as therefore very much 

 pleased when I came in correspondence with Mr. Savage on 

 ornithological matters, and tnore pleased still when the result of that 

 correspondence led to his sending me over last May a fawn-coloured 

 retriever bitch, which, as far as I can see, is a perfect retriever both 

 by land and water. I have not lost a single duck or snipe this year, 

 and that is saying something in this country, wdiere the reeds are so 

 thick. Our season begins early, long before the birds are strong 

 flyers, and altliough such a thing would not do in England, when 

 we are at Rome we do as they do at Rome ; and as I argued upon 

 the principle, if I don't get the birds now, some one else will, and, 

 moreover, as all our duck-shooting parties among the gentlemen 

 take place just at the commencement of the season, I joined many 

 parties before the ist of August, and it was a caution to see Sutt 

 (as w^e call her) catch the young birds about three-quarters grow^n, 

 and bring 'em alive to me one after the other. This just suited the 

 Swedes, wdio, so long as they get the game, hardly care much how 

 they do get it. This, however, was not likely nmch to improve my 

 lady's steadiness, and she got worse when the old birds were losing 

 neir pinion feathers, and, though they could not fly, could scuttle 

 along the w\iter at a good pace. I once heard the late Bill Scott 

 remark, in his usual energetic manner, in reference to a horse who 

 some one said would "walk over" for the Derby, — "Will 

 he ? well, he must walk quick to w^alk out of my way, that's 



