FIRST LESSON IN AUTUMN CONCLUDED. 589 



haired setter! You can easily construct one to punish 

 with any degree of severity you please. Take a common 

 leather collar; lay its inner surface flat on a soft deal 

 board : through the leather drive with a hammer any 

 number of tacks or flat-headed nails : then get a cobbler 

 to sew on another strap of leather at the back of the 

 nails, so as to retain them firmly in position. 



209. I have supposed that your dog has scented the birds 

 before they rose, but if he springs them without having 

 previously noticed them as in some rare cases happens 

 even to well-bred dogs you must bring him back to 

 the spot at which you feel assured that he ought to have 

 been sensible of their presence, and there make him 

 "Toho. J Afterwards endeavor to make him aware of 

 the haunt by encouraging him to sniif at the ground 

 that the birds have just left. The next time watch very 

 carefully for the slightest indication of his feathering, 

 and then instantly call out " Toho." After a few times 

 he will, to a certainty, understand you. 



210. You should kill outright the few first birds at 

 which you fire. I would infinitely prefer that you should 

 miss altogether than that one of the two or three first 

 birds should be a runner. Afterwards you have full 

 leave to merely wing a bird ; but still I should wish it not 

 to be too nimble. This is a good trial of your judgment 

 as well as the dog's. I hope he is to leeward of the 

 bird, and that it will not catch his eye. See he touches 

 on the haunt. Do not let him work with his nose to the 

 ground. " Up, up," must be your encouraging words, 



