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a knowledge of their business by a mutual 

 contest for precedence in error; that, under his 

 own guidance, or rather under that of a regular 

 keeper, the untutored animal has, in the example 

 of some veteran of the kennel, his fugelman to 

 appeal to in one case as well as the other. Now 

 this is the very point I wish to come to ; and must 

 beg to reply by saying, that I am not certain 

 whether this be not, in the way it is generally 

 practised, the worse system of the two ; and as 

 that by means of which we are less likely to 

 attain any very high individual excellence. It is 

 the very cause that we have so many second and 

 third-rate dogs, and so very few who are fit to act 

 a principal character in company. The object of 

 this system is merely to make the dog " stand." 

 But what of that? We have known dogs of 

 every kind, from the greyhound to the bulldog, 

 mongrels and curs of every description, who 

 have been taught " the trick of standing." 

 Within a few years, even a pig has been made 

 up into a pointer* ! Now my notions of educa- 



* I am sorry that I can not spare room for the full account 

 of this accomplished pig, as given in " The History of 

 Animals," by the Rev. - Bingley, published A. D. 

 It had formed an intimate acquaintance with some young 

 pointers, belonging to a keeper on the New Forest in Hamp- 

 shire. It fed and slept along with them; and when they 

 were taken out on training, it regularly followed them into 

 the field. Hence a whimsical idea occurred to the breaker, 



K 2 



