SOME AMERICAN SPORTING DOGS, 



By WILLIAM M. TILESTON 



TO WRITE of sporting dogs, or, in other parlance, of dogs 

 used for field-work, without mentioning the fox-hound, would 

 be like representing the play of " Hamlet" with the melan- 

 choly Dane himself omitted. Yet I am fain to confess that this 

 noble dog is the one with which I am least familiar. Certainly, I 

 have heard his deep-toned voice while following the trail of a deer 

 in northern woods, but he was only a degenerate scion of a noble 

 race. I have followed another, still more degenerate, when the 

 light snow showed the tracks of poor bunny where she wandered 

 through the swamp in search of bud or berry for her morning meal. 

 But the true fox-hound, without a cross, and bred with care, is a 

 rara cants, at least in the northern States. And yet the fox-hound 

 — certainly if we judge by the proclivities of the original settlers of 

 different regions — was probably the first dog introduced into this 

 country. It is not likely that the Pilgrim Fathers were given to 

 the sports of the field ; and yet what glorious shooting there must 

 have been in the old commonwealth when the Mayflower first 

 dropped her anchor. How the ruffed grouse must have bred in the 

 deep pine-woods! How the snipe must have swarmed in the 

 meadows! and the woodcock in the swamps ! And the deer, undis- 

 turbed by the sound of fire-arms or the bay of hound, how they must 

 have increased and multiplied ! 



But whatever the Roundheads did, the Cavaliers who went to 

 Virginia certainly carried their amusements with them, though tradi- 

 tion says not whether John Smith had dogs with him, or if the gentle 

 Sir Walter discovered the nicotian weed through the medium of 



