466 DOG-BREAKING. 



gust, as I have seen a bitch, called Countess, do more 

 than once, in Haddingtonshire. 



6. The chief requisites in a breaker are : Firstly, 

 command of temper, that he may never be betrayed 

 into giving one unnecessary blow, for with dogs, as 

 with horses, no work is so well done as that which is 

 done cheerfully ; secondly, consistency, that in the ex- 

 hilaration of his spirits, or in his eagerness to secure a 

 bird, he may not permit a fault to pass unreproved, I 

 do not say unpunished, which at a less exciting moment 

 he would have noticed and that, on the other hand, 

 he may not correct a dog the more harshly because the 

 shot has been missed, or the game lost ; and lastly, the 

 exercise of a little reflection, to enable him to judge 

 what meaning an unreasonable animal is likely to attach 

 to every word and sign, nay to every look. 



7. With the coarsest tackle, and worst flies, trout 

 can be taken in unflogged waters, while it requires much 

 science, and the finest gut, to kill persecuted fish. It is 

 the same in shooting. With almost any sporting-dog 

 game can be killed early in the season, when the birds 

 lie like stones, and the dog can get within a few yards 

 of them ; but you will require one highly broken to 

 obtain many shots when they are wild. Then any in- 

 cautious approach of the dog, or any noise, would flush 

 the game, and your own experience will tell you that 

 nothing so soon puts birds on the run, and makes them 

 so ready to take flight, as the sound of the human 

 voice, especially now-a-days, when farmers general Iv 



