CH. xvii.] SCENT OF HIT AND MISSED BIRDS. 299 



dogs take a large circuit. The latter may thus, without 

 interfering with the first dog, come upon the bird, should 

 it have run far. Send him in the direction the covey 

 has taken the chances are great that the bird is travel- 

 ling towards the same point. By pursuing this plan, 

 obviously there will be much less chance of your losing 

 a bird than if you allow the dogs to keep close together 

 while searching. (See also 115.) 



545. Do not think that by making your setter lift 

 (after his first season), instead of " pointing dead," there 

 will be any increased risk of his raising unsprung birds. 

 The difference between the scent of dead or wounded 

 game, and that of game perfectly uninjured, is so great 

 that no steady, experienced dog will fail to point any 

 fresh bird he may come across whilst seeking for that 

 which is lost. 



As a proof of this I may mention that, 



546. In North America I once saw three snipe lying on the ground, 

 which a pointer, that retrieved, had regularly set one after the 

 other, having found a couple on his way to retrieve the first, and 

 which he afterwards brought in succession to his master, who had 

 all the time governed the dog entirely by signs, never having been 

 obliged to use his voice beyond saying in a low tone, " Dead," or 

 " Find." I remember, also, hearing of a retrieving setter that on 

 one occasion pointed a fresh bird, still retaining in her mouth the 

 winged partridge which she was carrying, and of a pointer who 

 did the same when he was bringing a hare ; there must, too, be 

 few sportsmen who will not admit that they have found it more 

 difficult to make a dog give up the pursuit of a wounded hare than 

 of one perfectly uninjured. I know of a sportsman's saying he felt 

 certain that the hare his retriever was coursing over the moors must 

 have been struck, although the only person who had fired stoutly 

 maintained that the shot was a regular miss. The owner of the 

 dog, however, averred that this was impossible, as he never could 

 get the discerning animal to follow any kind of unwounded game ; 

 and, on the other hand, that no rating would make him quit the 

 pursuit of injured running feather or fur. The retriever's speedy 

 return with puss, conveniently balanced between his jaws, bore 

 satisfactory testimony to the accuracy of both his own and his master's 

 judgment. In December, '49, a woodcock that was struck hard 

 took a long flight. A setter-bitch I have often shot over came, 



