FOR THE FIELD AND FIELD TRIALS. 169 



examples of bad ranging are as follows : When a 

 dog takes his casts, be they long or short, straight out 

 in any direction in which he first starts, generally up 

 or across wind, then turns and comes directly back 

 to his handler on nearly the same line which marked 

 his course in going out. On the return, in most in- 

 stances, he forgets that he has a nose while using his 

 eye to watch his handler as he hurries straight to 

 him. In any event, it is not then necessary that he 

 should use his nose on ground which he a moment 

 before ran over. 



A particularly annoying phase of this style of 

 ranging is the taking of a straight line directly ahead 

 in the course of the shooter. Thus, most of the time 

 the shooter and the dog are following the same line. 

 More than half of such a dog's time and effort is 

 wasted, for it takes him as long to return as it does 

 to go out. He necessarily is a poor finder. He 

 knows no difference between the best and the worst 

 ground. He may point birds when he happens to 

 run across them, as he is sure to do sooner or later in 

 a bird country, for even the shooter will himself walk 

 up birds every now and then ; but so far as any real 

 merit is concerned such a dog- has none, 



