CH. TV.] NO RAT-HUNTING. 75 



setter (or pointer) pup : carefully guard a young re- 

 triever (indeed any dog bred for the gun) from being 

 ever allowed to join in a rat-hunt. Eat-hunting would 

 tend to destroy his tenderness of mouth, nay possibly 

 make him mangle his game. But this is not all. It has 

 often gradually led good dogs to decline lifting hares or 

 rabbits, apparently regarding them more in the light of 

 vermin than of game. Some dogs, however, that are 

 not bad retrievers, are capital ratters, but they are ex- 

 ceptions to the general rule. Indeed, you should never 

 permit your dog to retrieve any kind of ground or 

 winged vermin. If the creature were only wounded it 

 might turn upon him. He in self-defence would give it 

 a grip, and he might thus be led to follow the practice 

 on less pardonable occasions. Eemember, that a winged 

 bittern or heron might peck out his eye. 



