124 



GROUSE'S " FEAT EXPLAINED. 



[CH. VII. 



faintest indications, that her sagacity led her not to abandon 

 hastily such tokens, however feeble, but rather to seek patiently for 

 a confirmation or disproval of her surmises, that these fancies of 

 hers often ending in disappointment, her manner did not exhibit 

 any excitement that could have induced a spectator to guess what 

 was passing in her mind, that he, therefore, noticed nothing un- 

 usual until after the removal of her hesitation and doubts, when he 

 observed her walking calmly direct up to her birds, and that he 

 thus was led to regard as an unexplained faculty what really ought 

 to have been considered as simply an evidence of extreme sensitive- 

 ness of nose combined with marvellous caution, a caution it is 

 the great aim of good breaking to inculcate. If I am right in my 

 theory, extraordinary " finder " as " Grouse " was, she would have 

 been yet more successful had she been taught to range properly. 



Stiff by the tainted gale with open nose, 



Outstretched and finely sensible." THOMSON'S SEASONS. 



Par. 210. 



214. It is heedlessness, the exact opposite of this 

 extreme caution, that makes young dogs so often dis- 

 regard and overrun a slight scent ; and since they are 



