218 HOW REFORMED. [CH. xm. 



immoveable myself; lie might have misconstrued any 

 hasty advance on my part into rivalship for possession 

 of the bird ; in short, into a repetition of one of the 

 many scrambles to which he had recently been accus- 

 tomed, and in which I feel sure he must invariably 

 have come off victorious. I ought, when loaded, to 

 have walked calmly up to him, and, without taking the 

 slightest notice of the disfigured bird, have dragged him 

 back, while loudly rating him, to the spot where. he 

 should have " down charged." After a good flagellation, 

 a protracted lecture, and a long delay, (the longer the 

 better,) I ought to have made him cautiously approach 

 the bird ; and by a little scolding, and by showing him 

 the wounds he had inflicted, have striven to make him 

 sensible and ashamed of his enormities. Probably, too, 

 had the birds lain well, the moment he pointed I should 

 have employed the checkcord * with a spike, giving him 

 a liberal allowance of slack line (335). Had I thus 

 treated him throughout the day, I have little doubt but 

 that he would have become a reformed character; though 

 an occasional outbreak might not unreasonably have 

 been expected. (See 302 to 305.) 



375. If you purchase a dog who has been much shot over single- 

 handed by a tolerably good sportsman, you have the satisfaction of 

 knowing that the animal must necessarily have great self-reliance 

 and experience. On the other hand, you will see reason to distrust 

 his forbearance and temper when he is hunted with a companion. 

 Of the usual run of dogs, it probably would be better to purchase 

 two which have been shot over singly, and then associate them in 



* I am glad to say I never had bird which the dog had been re- 

 occasion to adopt so severe a strained by a checkcord from bolt- 

 remedy as the following ; but I ing. The pins were cut to a length 

 have heard of an otherwise incor- somewhat less than the diameter 

 rigible taste for blood being cured of its body, and were fixed at right 

 by a partridge pierced transversely angles to one another. Several 

 with two knitting - pins being slight wires would, I think, have 

 adroitly substituted for the fallen answered better. 



