RETRIEVERS AND THEIR BREAKING 179 



under such humanising conditions of scent. It is a good plan 

 to pick up by hand all the game that lies near and within 

 sight of where the shooters stood before sending the dogs, and 

 when the dead pick-up is collected, to send the game off down 

 wind of the place to be hunted, so that the scent of it does not 

 mix with the similar scent of some long-gone runner. Then if 

 the ground to be hunted is up wind of where the dead birds 

 were, everything will be in favour of a dog started from that 

 spot ; if, on the contrary, it is to leeward of the fall of a lot of 

 game, it is well to go still farther down wind with the retriever, 

 and start him 100 yards or more away from the tainted 

 ground. Then, after trying around for a trace of foot scent, 

 it is easy enough to work back if no indications are found. 

 The object is to get the retriever as quickly as possible 

 on the line of wounded game, without letting him lose time 

 lifting dead ones or hunting for already " picked " birds. 



In walking up game one of the most difficult things to 

 learn is to take the far-off bird, and not the easy one, first. By 

 taking the latter with first barrel the former often becomes 

 impossible, and it is just the same with retrievers. If you 

 send them off amongst dead game, they must be allowed to 

 pick it up, although you can see it. A contrary practice is 

 very useful sometimes, and it is easy to teach a retriever to 

 neglect the dead for the wounded always ; but this " higher 

 education " is extremely awkward in thick cover, like long 

 heather or turnips, where the quite dead birds are most often 

 lost 



A case in point occurs. Mr. A. T. Williams' Don of 

 Gerwn won the retriever trials very comfortably in 1904, when 

 the author was one of the three judges. There is no doubt 

 that he is very smart on a running bird in covert, or out, and 

 he knows it, and likes the game amazingly. But in 1905 he 

 carried his preferences too far ; for once, at least, and probably 

 on several ocasions, he found, and made no sign of it when 

 sent for dead birds, but went on hunting for the runner that 

 was not. He had been scolded off dead birds, and thus, on 

 one occasion, he was seen by a spectator to turn over the 



