MY DOGS AND OTHERS 255 



smitten with the cerebral form and ... ' Beauty ' 

 was her name, and a beauty she was. I had several 

 other Clumbers, but never another ' Beauty.' 



It is curious how dogs, individually, become ac- 

 complished in special ways that perhaps they never 

 could be taught. The first time I took my Clumber, 

 1 Beauty,' to a covert shoot she distinguished herself 

 by pinching a boy's nose. I laid some dead pheasants 

 on a ride, and the boy stooped to pick up one, when 

 ' Beauty ' sprang at his face in the most business- 

 like manner. Ever afterwards, if she had seen me 

 lay down game, she would allow no one to touch it ; 

 beaters, stops, loaders, guns all were the same to 

 her. Again, one of my terriers, when scratching 

 after a rat, always knew instantly if the rat had 

 bolted, seen or unseen I suppose, by some fine 

 discrimination in the scent. This would be a 

 difficult thing to teach a dog. Another terrier 

 nothing would induce to stay at a burrow if a ferret 

 or another dog were operating on the holes ; she 

 preferred to keep watch in the main run leading 

 from the burrow. From the first she took to this 

 plan of her own accord. My favourite retriever, 

 whose name was ' Floss/ was an expert at ratting ; 

 it never made any difference to her mouth. Of 

 course, I did not enter her to rats until she had 

 arrived at years of discretion. She was handicapped 

 by her size ; but where space permitted, the way 

 she would sweep up the largest rat was worth 



