34 FEATHERED GAME 
the language in which you voice your benevo- 
lent wishes for the future welfare of the invent- 
or of that style of fence (may they be fulfilled!) 
until he sees signs of the barbs letting go their 
hold, when he is away like a bullet, his wings a 
mere haze as they roar through the branches. 
Occasionally the farmer’s cur is ‘‘trained’’ 
for a ‘‘pa’tridge dawg;’’ that is to say, his nat- 
ural propensities to bark and ‘‘yap’’ are turned 
to some account He runs in upon the young 
flocks, which instantly take to the trees; the 
dog then makes such a noise with his continua’ 
yelping and running about that the birds see 
and hear nothing but this miserable intruder, 
and so allow the mighty hunter to creep unob- 
served within easy distance, maybe to take a 
resting shot at their motionless bodies. Often 
honest cocker spaniels are degraded by this 
low practice. In the mind of the sportsman this 
stands almost as high as driving a doe to water 
and paddling a canoe alongside to blow her 
brains out with a charge of buckshot. 
There is a widespread notion that when a 
flock is thus ‘‘treed’’ a pot-shooter may secure 
several birds before they will take alarm and 
fly if he will take care to shoot the lowest one 
