194 



WELL-TRAINED POINTERS 



paint-brush ; hind legs d la grenouille. Ponto was there- 

 fore no beauty ; but having invested the sum of five 

 pounds in the purchase of the said Ponto, I was obhged to 

 take him for better for worse. Being my own property, 

 I could do as I liked with him, and that goes for some- 

 thing with a youth of seventeen ; so, after a little more 

 wrangling, we became very attached friends, without 

 his again attempting to attach himself to my coat collar. 



My father possessed a perfect kennel of pointers, as 

 beautiful as Houris, but these were never allowed to be 

 used without the keeper's presence in the field. The 

 appearance and working of these pointers was the most 

 perfect thing of the sort I have ever witnessed. They 

 were often taken out all together, eight bitches of one 

 colour, white, with tanned ears, and of beautiful symmetry. 

 Their style of hunting, standing, and backing each other 

 was quite perfection. I remember on one occasion the 

 keeper sending them over a wall just before he approached 

 it, on the other side of which was a covey of birds. They 

 of course dropped directly, but the last bitch was scram- 

 bling over the wall, when, catching sight of her com- 

 panions, she clung on the top, and there remained until 

 he had flushed the birds. 



In partridge-shooting there should be as little noise as 

 possible ; no vociferous screaming of " So ho ! " '' Down 

 charge ! " &c. &c. All loud exclamations will produce 

 the certain effect of scaring away the birds. A short 

 whistle to attract the dogs, if ranging too wide, and a 

 wave of the hand are suflicient. Our pointers were taught 

 to drop whenever the hand was held up, so that if one 

 dog took a point in one direction whilst the other was 

 quartering in another, a short whistle brought him round 

 instantly, and seeing the hand held up, he dropped 



