290 ALBERT AND PEGGY. [CH. xvi. 



her point. She kept drawing on, but with the same ill-success. I 

 must confess I was for the moment sorely puzzled ; but knowing 

 the excellence of the animal, I let her alone. She kept drawing on 

 for nearly a hundred yards still no birds. At last, of her own 

 accord, and with a degree of instinct amounting almost to the faculty 

 of reasoning, she broke from her point, and dashing off to the right 

 made a detour, and was presently straight before me, some three 

 hundred yards off, setting the game whatever it might be, as much 

 as to say, ' I'll be ****** if you escape me this time.' We walked 

 steadily on, and when within about thirty yards of her, up got a 

 covey of red-legged partridges, and we had the good fortune to kill 

 a brace each. It is one of the characteristics of these birds to run 

 for an amazing distance before they take wing ; but the sagacity of 

 my faithful dog baffled all their efforts to escape. We fell in with 

 several coveys of these birds during the day, and my dog ever after 

 gave them the double, and kept them between the gun and herself." 



528. Mr. M i, an officer high in the military store department, 



wrote to me but last Christmas (1863) almost in the following 

 words : 



529. " When stationed in Jamaica, quail and the wild guinea-fowl 

 were the only game I ever hunted for. The latter are very difficult 

 to approach, as they run for hours through the long grass and brush- 

 wood, and will not rise unless hard pressed ; but when once flushed, 

 they spread through the cover, and lie so close, that one may 

 almost kick them before without raising them. My dog, ' Albert, 

 was broke on grouse before I had him out from home. A steadier 

 or better dog you will rarely see. The first time we went out after 

 guinea-fowl he set to work as though hunting for grouse, pointing, 

 and reading cautiously when he came on the run of the birds, but, 

 from their pace through the cover, never coming up with them. 

 This occurred the first two or three mornings, and annoyed him 

 greatly. At last one day, as soon as he found that the birds were 

 running through the bush, he halted, turned round, and looked up 

 at me as much as to say : * My poking after these fellows is all 

 nonsense ; do let me try some other dodge.' So I told him to go 

 on, when he instantly started off, making a wide cast until he 

 headed his game, when he commenced beating back towards me, 

 driving the birds before him until they were sufficiently near me, 

 when he dashed suddenly in amongst them, forcing the whole 

 pack to take wing. They spread through the surrounding grass 

 and cover, and ' Albert ' and his mother, ' Peggy,' went to work, 

 picking up the birds singly or in pairs as they lay. Old mother 

 ' Peggy ' was f ar too sedate and stanch to follow her son in the 

 chase ; she remained with me until he had brought back, and flushed 

 the birds, and then she vied with him in finding them. 



From this time I never had any difficulty in getting shots at these 

 wary birds, for the very moment they commenced running, 'Albert' 

 was off until he headed them, drove them back, and flushed them, 

 as above described. 



When looking for quail, 'Albert' behaved quite differently, 



