the changes that come over the dreams of the amateur sportsman when he fails to put up his expected 

 birds. He knows Avhere they are, for he marked them all down in the meadow of short-grass, within a 

 few j-ards of a stump or tree. Then, it is such a commentary on his dogs, for ho knoAvs they are all right 

 - — never better, truer noses; still they go, over and over, round and round, without coming to a point. — 

 There, tliat dog has flushed a bird. — Now he is assured the}^ are all within twenty feet of that place; 

 and he rene^\'s his search, and keeps his dogs going over and o-ver the same ground, until both dogs and 

 gunner disgusted, quit the place. How they got away, and where they all went to, and Avhy that single 

 bird remained M'here the covey went down, and why the dogs did not point that bird; all pass through 

 the mind of the hunter as he leisurely marches on in search of other and bettor luck. He perhaps 

 meets his experienced friend, to whom he relates his disappointment, and who, in turn, proposes after a 

 given time to return to the meadow and the stump or tree. They do so, and eA'ery dog comes to a 

 point. Down comes three birds. The dogs move cautiously, in a moment again stand. This is repeated 

 until the last bird has gone the gantlet. Experience of this kind is not a novelty; but occurs frequently. A 

 few years since I was out with a friend, and we flushed a very large co\'ey, and marked them down ac- 

 curately on an elevated piece of ground in a woodland j^asture. The grass was short, and there wos not 

 even a weed or brier, and but here and there a large tree. We moved forward with three dogs, expect- 

 ing to bring on an engagement at once. We made the dogs approach cautiously, giving them warning 

 that game was in the immediate vicinity, but they arrived on the identical spot where we saw as many 

 as thirty birds alight, without making the least demonstration whatever that there was any thing unusual 

 about the place. We knew bettei*, and made them go over and over, crossing and re-crossing, until it 

 seemed every foot and even every inch of ground had been most thoroughly examined. We did this until 

 two sportsmen and three good dogs gave up the pursuit. It was now past noon, and we sat down 

 on the grass and uncorked our canteens, and opened up the lunch. We were eating, talking, and 

 laughing, occasionally rewarding the dogs with a cracker, when my friend, by way of sport, said, 

 *'Look at old Tom, he is on a point." The dog was half standing, half down, with his nose 

 thrown under his chest, between his front legs. Sure enough, he was on a point, for there Wcis the bird, 

 with its bright black eyes, only partially concealed by a leaf, almost under the dog's body. My friend 

 placed his hat over it and caught it, without moving from the dinner-table. At that instant another dog 

 made a point within six inches of my feet. I saAV the bird at once, and attempted to capture it with 

 my hand, but it made its escape. This was the signal for'a general move, and the whole covey rose 

 from all around and about us. The concert of their actions in the manner of going down, retaining scent, 

 remaining still under the most trying circumstances, and the mode of leaving — all indicated an under- 

 standing, an education by command, how to act in times of great danger. 



The ability to evade the perception of the sharpest and most experienced dogs, has been ac- 

 counted for in various ways by sportsmen and authors ; some claim that through fear they retain their 

 scent by alighting and not moving after touching the ground, and compressing the plumage in a way to 

 check the emanations. Others deny most emphatically that they possess the power to withhold the scent, 

 and say the manifestations are accounted for by the scent being confined and covered up; while others 

 assert knowingly that the reason the dogs are unable to find the birds at the spot where they are seen to settle 

 is they are not there to flash; that they have run away, and that after a given time will return to the 

 place where the sportsman expected, but failed, to find them. I am satisfied, however, that ordinary 

 observation and a little patience will convince any one that these birds do possess the power, and do 

 frequently exercise it in a way that deprives the dog of not only the ability to locate them by scent, 

 but also of the entire knowledge of their presence; and that the birds appear to fully understand Avhen 

 they are in this relation to the dog. That they do not always *'ruii away and come back again," I have 

 frequently tested to my entire satisfaction. A few years since, I flushed a covey of about one dozen 

 birds and marked them down very correctly in some broom-corn stubble. My dog was beyond question, 



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