3 o WILD SPORTS OF BURMA AND ASSAM 



A good retriever is worth his weight in gold for snipe- 

 shooting. I bought in 1860 a nice-looking, well-bred, spaniel 

 pup. The parents had been imported by Col. Pinson a well- 

 known dog fancier. 



This pup soon attached himself to me, and as he showed a 

 propensity for retrieving, I took to shooting birds and throwing 

 things for him to fetch, but I had not had him out shooting 

 game until he was about a year old. I was going across the 

 Kabong river to a pet piece of snipe ground which was then 

 only known to me, and to get there I went on an elephant, 

 and took the dog on the pad behind me. Before long the 

 dog was as sick as if he were crossing the Channel in rough 

 weather for the first time, and by the time we got to the 

 ground seemed to be all abroad. Where I dismounted there 

 was a small Zyat. I left my tiffin-basket there, and walked 

 into the snipe ground with the dog at my heels. I had soon 

 several birds on the ground, and bid the dog fetch, but he 

 showed no aptitude at retrieving at all, and would not leave 

 heel. I was very fond of him, but utterly disgusted at his 

 behaviour, as I had expected great things from him, so I went 

 on shooting, and presently missed him altogether. I screamed 

 myself hoarse calling him, but could find him nowhere, nor 

 had the coolies with me seen him go away : so I thought I 

 had lost him, and went on shooting till about twelve, when I 

 went back to the Zyat to breakfast, and there I found my dog 

 curled up close to the basket. I don't know whether I was 

 more pleased at finding him, or angry at his behaviour, but I 

 made much of him, fed him, and took him out again, but it 

 was useless he would not retrieve. So I thought I had been 

 mistaken in him, and never meant to take him out again. He 

 sat behind me on the pad going home, with 26 couple of snipe 

 close under his nose ; he was not sick. 



Whether he got' used to the elephant's motion and began to 

 comprehend what was required of him from his close contact 

 with the birds I cannot tell, but the very next time I mounted 

 an elephant to go out snipe-shooting, he of his own accord 

 jumped up behind me, and when I commenced to shoot, 

 although rather wild at first, he soon settled down and 

 retrieved as if he had been used to it all his life. In time he 



