202 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



dogs will not go there either, because they have learnt to keep 

 near to him. In this case, four or six couples of wild spaniels 

 to hunt up wild pheasants, woodcock, and rabbits, make beautiful 

 sport, but they usually need several whippers-in to keep them 

 somewhere in the neighbourhood of the shooters. 



A friend of the author's was once expatiating on the improved 

 methods of pheasant shooting, and explaining that the last 

 generation knew nothing of the charms and the art of killing 

 driven birds, when, at that moment, wild spaniels on the hill 

 above us flushed four cock pheasants, they came at us swerving 

 through the trees down hill at a cannon-ball pace, and four 

 shots did not touch a feather. Yet this was the old style of 

 pheasant shooting at least in that district, and it was on 

 record there that the last generation were first-rate performers 

 in covert and out. Amongst other birds they killed flighting 

 duck and sometimes flighting teal also at night, all of which, 

 including the down-hill rocketers from the spaniels on the hill- 

 side, are out of all proportion harder to kill than the best birds 

 that ever flew across the open and flat ground from one covert 

 to another, however the latter have "sailed" and "curved" 

 in their flights. 



By mutual consent, after missing the cocks, we changed the 

 subject of conversation. 



It has been said that field trials have brought some good 

 dogs to the front, and enabled those who go to trials to judge 

 for themselves of the merits of individuals and of races ; but 

 they have also done injury in one direction. There may be 

 differences of opinion amongst sportsmen on how spaniels should 

 be judged at field trials, but there can be no question that 

 the use of field trials as a mere show dog advertisement is 

 misleading and objectionable. As these remarks are written, 

 there is an advertisement of spaniels appearing in which it is 

 stated that the owner's breed has won " 800 field trial and 

 show prizes." What the author knows of the breed is that upon 

 one occasion they won a prize at a field trial, a prize that 

 was ear-marked for the breed, and won it because competition 

 was weak and limited. That they have won 799 show prizes 



