202 BIRDS' FEET GIVEN. [CH. xir. 



give but few cuts ; let them, however, be tolerably 

 severe. Your pupil's recollection of them, when he 

 hears the crack of the whip, will prevent the necessity 

 of their frequent repetition. 



345. I knew of a young fellow's purchasing a pointer of an ex- 

 cellent breed from a gamekeeper for a few shillings merely, as the 

 animal had become so timid from over-chastisement, that she not 

 only blinked her game, but seldom quitted the man's heels. 



The lad had the good sense to treat the bitch, at all 

 times, with the greatest kindness ; and in order to in- 

 duce her to hunt, he used to break off the feet* of every 

 bird he killed, and give them to her to eat along with 

 the sinews. The plan succeeded so well that she even- 

 tually became an unusually keen and fast ranger. This 

 would be a hazardous step to take with a dog wanted 

 to retrieve. There are few, if any dogs who may not 

 be tempted by hunger to eat game. A gentleman told 

 me, that, to his great astonishment, he one day saw an 

 old tender-mouthed retriever, that he had possessed for 

 years, deliberately swallow a partridge. Before he could 

 get up to the dog even the tail-feathers had disappeared. 

 On inquiry it turned out that, through some neglect, 

 the animal had not been fed. 



346. Some argue that blinking arises from a defective 

 nose, not from punishment ; but surely it is the in- 

 judicious chastisement following the blunders caused by 



* Thus greatly improving it for front of and about the middle of 

 table. The cook who first thought its legs, crack the bone across 

 of breaking the legs of birds, and that part with a blow of the knife ; 

 dragging out the sinews, ought to then stick the sinews of the foot 

 be immortalized. The first person on a hook fixed high against the 

 I saw practising the feat was an wall, seize firm hold of the thigh 

 admirable black man-cook, in the of the turkey, give a sudden power- 

 West Indies : he was preparing ful pull, and leave the lower part 

 turkeys for a large supper ; and, of the leg, with a large body of 

 to my great surprise, I saw him sinews, perfectly stripped of all 

 take up each bird, cut the skin in flesh, suspended on the hook. 



