FIRST LESSON IN AUTUMN CONCLUDED. ,595 



ranee, fire at another bird, even if it sprang at your feet, 

 for your doing so, whether you missed or killed, would 

 unsettle the young dog, and make him relinquish hk 

 search. Be stimulated to present exertion by the con- 

 viction, that if he be not now well instructed, you must 

 expect him to lose, season after season, nearly every 

 bird only slightly disabled by a merely tipped wing. 



218. I hope you will not say, as would most of our 

 neighbors* on the other side of the Channel : " But ifj 

 instead of waiting to load, I had gone after the winged 

 bird just as it fell, when first I saw it start off running, 

 the evil you have now spoken of 215 could not have 

 occurred, for there would have been but little risk of 

 losing it." Probably not, but you would almost have 

 ruined your dog; and to secure this one bird, in all 

 likelihood you would subsequently lose a hundred.f 

 How could you with justice blame him if, when next 



* In favor of such unsportsman-like haste they ingeniously argue 

 that a continued noise after firing makes birds lie, from attracting 

 their attention. They say that a sudden change to quiet and a 

 great change it must be, for a chasseur is always talking alarms 

 the birds. As an evidence of this, they adduce the well-known 

 fact of its frequently happening that a partridge gets up the 

 moment the guns have left the spot, though no previous noise had 

 induced it to stir. 



f Had you lost the bird from there being but little scent, it is 

 probable you might have found it by renewing your search on your 

 return homewards in the evening. If a runner, it would moat likely 

 have rejoined the covey. 



