144 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



capital watch-Dog, a good-natured playfellow for his children, 

 a superior Pheasant Dog, a courageous ducker, an excellent 

 piger, unequalled ratter, fair on Snipe, and useful on Partridges, 

 etc. etc. 



If a Setter be used for Pheasant shooting — and he certainly 

 is far preferable to a Pointer for this sport — he should be old 

 and steady, and contented with a point at twenty, or even 

 thirty feet, as it is almost impossible for a Dog to make a 

 nearer approach, even in the closest cover, as these wild Birds 

 are constantly on the alert, and will make off at the first inti- 

 mation of danger, either by taking wing, or running. Early 

 in the season, however, when Grouse are young, they will lie 

 much better, and are always in fine condition for the table, 

 owing to the great abundance of wild fruit that they obtain. 

 The Cocker, Spaniel, and Springer, as stated in our edition of 

 Youatt, are, no doubt, the proper Dogs to hunt this game with. 

 When the presence of Grouse is suspected, great caution and 

 absolute silence are necessary to approach them, as it is a sin- 

 gular circumstance, but, nevertheless, a well-established fact, 

 that Grouse will bear the presence of a Dog, or even the report 

 of a gun, much better than they will a single sound of the 

 human voice, a fact which any one can test whenever an oppor- 

 tunity offers for him to raise them when pointed by his Dog. A 

 single word spoken will always be sufficient to do it. 



SNARES, ETC. 



Many Pheasants are snared and entrapped by the same means 

 resorted to in taking Partridges, and we may safely say that full 

 one-half of the Birds brought to market are obtained in this 

 way, and not by the gun. Pheasants, when feeding, resemble 

 the Woodcock in one particular, and that is, their intolerable 

 aversion to clamber or fly over any trifling obstruction that 

 may be placed in their course through their feeding-grounds ; 

 and this singularity is taken advantage of by the country boys, 

 who place a barrier across their haunts, a foot or more high, 

 with small openings at short distances apart, set with horsehair 

 snoods, as before described, and thus take large numbers in the 

 course of the season. 



