642 DOG-BREAKTNv>. 



As a proof of this I may mention that, 



298. In North America I once saw, lying on the 

 ground, three snipe, which a pointer, that retrieved, 

 had regularly set one after the other, having found a 

 couple on his way to retrieve the first, and which he 

 afterwards brought in succession to his master, who had 

 all the time governed the dog entirely by signs, never 

 having been obliged to use his voice beyond saying, in 

 a low tone, " Dead," or " Find." I remember, also, 

 hearing of a retrieving setter that on one occasion 

 pointed a fresh bird, still retaining in her mouth the 

 winged partridge which she was carrying, and of a 

 pointer who did the same when he was bringing a 

 hare ; there must, too, be few sportsmen who will not 

 admit that they have found it more difficult to make 

 a dog give up the pursuit of a wounded hare than of 

 one perfectly uninjured. I know of a sportsman's 

 saying he felt certain that the hare his retriever was 

 coursing over the moors must have been struck, 

 although the only person who had fired stoutly main- 

 tained that the shot was a regular miss.* The owner 

 of the dog, however, averred that this was impossible, 

 as he never could get the discerning animal to follow 



* I retain this anecdote because every one of the occurrences 

 related has happened to myself. The first many times in the 

 United States ; the second once in the United States when my dog 

 Chavee pointed a fresh woodcock with a dead bird in his mouth, 

 and a winged bird under his fore paw; the last, many times 

 in England over an old Russian setter, Charm. H. W. H. 



