100 AMERICAN GAME. 



in discipline than a pointer the fastest setter you can 

 get, is the best dog for snipe-shooting ; his superiority, in 

 other points, infinitely counterbalancing the greater 

 trouble it requires to break and control him. I am well 

 aware that it has been said, and that by authorities, that 

 the best dog over which to shoot snipe, is an old, slow, 

 broken-down, staunch pointer, who crawls along at a 

 foot's pace, and never misses, overruns, or flushes a bird. 



And so, in two cases, he is ; but in one case, no dog is 

 just as good as he is, and in the other the argument is 

 one of incapacity to use what is best, and therefore is no 

 argument. 



If birds are so thick on the grounds, and so tame that 

 you can fill your bag in walking over one or two acres at 

 a foot's pace, a very slow pointer is better than fa$t set- 

 ters but no dog at all, your walking up the birds your- 

 self, which you can do just as quickly as the dog can, is 

 better than the slow pointer. Indeed, on very small 

 grounds, very thickly stocked, it is by far the most kill- 

 ing way to use no dog, but to walk up the birds. 



If a man is so weak and infirm of purpose, or so igno- 

 rant of the first principles of his art, as to be unable to 

 control his setters, he must, I suppose, use a slow pointer ; 

 but it cannot matter what dog such a man uses, he 

 never can be a sportsman. 



If there be a hundred birds lying, and lying well on 

 one acre of feeding-ground, the birds can be killed with- 



