DISTINGUISHING WHISTLES. 629 



advantage fair notice of the approach of the guns by 

 shouting out the name of one of the dogs. 



273. Or, if one dog was attentive to the whistle, 

 did he not gradually learn to disregard it from ob- 

 serving that his companion was never chidden for 

 neglecting to obey it ? and did not such laxity 

 more and more confirm both in habits of disobe- 

 dience ? 



274. I believe several of my readers will be con- 

 strained to answer these questions in the affirmative; 

 and, further, I think their own experience will remind 

 them of many occasions, both on moor and stubble 

 when birds were wild, on which they have wished to 

 attract the notice of a particular dog perhaps running 

 along a hedge, or pottering over a recent haunt; or 

 hunting down wind towards marked game by whis- 

 tling instead of calling out his name, but have been 

 unwilling to do so, lest the other dogs should likewise 

 obey the shrill sound to which all were equally ac- 

 customed. 



275. Now, in breaking young dogs, yon could, by 

 using whistles of dissimilar calls, easily avoid the 

 liability of these evils ; and by invariably employing 

 a particular whistle for each dog to summon him 

 separately to his food 29 each would distinguish his 

 own whistle as surely as every dog knows his own 

 master's whistle, and as hounds learn their names. 

 Dogs not only know their own names, but instantly 

 know by the pronunciation when it is uttered by 



