192 PAINTERS 



known several coveys entirely missed by a rapid sports- 

 man, and met with afterwards in the same fields by a 

 more patient workman. The corner of a field is not the 

 most unlikely spot to find partridges in, and every acre 

 should be well tried before leaving one enclosure for 

 another. In open countries, where there are scarcely 

 any fences, dogs may be allowed a wider range, but 

 still they should be made to quarter their ground. 



Some of the best pointers I have ever seen, both for 

 nose and work, were from a cross with a foxhound. 

 They required a good deal of trouble and patience in 

 breaking, but I never saw them beaten in the most severe 

 day. I have shot over many different kinds of pointers 

 in my time, but this cross was decidedly the best. The 

 old-fashioned Spanish is now almost, ti not quite, out 

 of fashion, and no loss. I was once master of an indivi- 

 dual dog of this species, the very ugliest of the canine 

 race I ever encountered. He possessed, however, some 

 good qualities, but it cannot be said of him, as it is often 

 asserted of plain bipeds, that good temper made up for 

 a deficiency in good looks, as he happened to be just 

 about the roughest disposition one could possibly meet 

 with in the course of a life. Old Ponto would do very 

 well if left in undisturbed possession of the field and his 

 own way of beating it, which was in a long, scrambling 

 jog trot ; and possessing a good nose, it rarely happened 

 that he missed his birds. He would stand like a post 

 until the gun was discharged, but " down charge " was 

 an unknown or rather an unheeded term in his vocabu- 

 lary, if he ever had one. Nothing could have made him 

 submit to such a degradation as this except a charge 

 of shot through his head. The bird he would fetch when 

 dropped, or, if woimded, would pursue until caught, 



