Retrieving a Pheasant. 129 



the sly old cocks running back and getting up with a 

 " whirr" and a" beck-beck" behind you. Many a 

 pheasant, too, has my little white dog Grip found ; and 

 to see his stumpy tail going from side to side was a 

 certain sign that game was about. This same terrier, 

 though taking water freely, did not care about leaping 

 from a bank. A cock pheasant, to a " neat right " of a 

 friend of mine, had fallen into the river, at that time 

 running in flood and at a great pace. Grip was there on 

 the bank, and leaning down I let him drop some three feet 

 into the stream. He knew where the " longtail " was 

 floating away sea-wards, and, striking out, soon had him in 

 his jaws. It was hard work with such a mouthful making 

 his way against the current, but, swimming by the side, he 

 came up to me, and, leaning over, I took the bird from him 

 and then lifted the clever little dog on to terra firma. 

 Shaking himself and being caressed for his excellent per- 

 formance, he was not long before he was drying his 

 jacket by bustling the rabbits about in a thick and prickly 

 piece of covert. A modern smooth-haired fox terrier will 

 do duty of any kind equally as well as any other terrier, if 

 properly trained and brought up so to do ; but for work in 

 the rain and water, labourers' rough duty in fact, he will 

 not be found so hardy as the cross-bred animal of some of 

 the best strains. 



Time after time has it been stated that the " show dog" is 

 a fraud when he has to earn his living in driving foxes 

 and killing vermin. Possibly he may be so, for an owner 

 with a terrier worth a couple of hundred pounds is scarcely 

 likely to run any risk with him. In an earth he may be 

 smothered by a fall of soil or buried by some displace- 

 ment of rock ; and in killing the largest descriptions of 



K 



