THE WATER SPANIEL. 215 



as the ruffed grouse, the spotted or spruce grouse of 

 Canada, the red-necked or willow grouse of Vermont, 

 Maine, the British Provinces and Labrador, in the vast 

 wooded wildernesses where they abound, and to chase them 

 when flushed to the tree, in which they besiege them ; 

 keeping them motionless by their sharp barking, by which 

 also they inform the shooter of their whereabout, until he 

 can come up, and knock them off their perch by a felon 

 shot. 



For this work, I cannot call it sport, nor those who 

 pursue it sportsmen, the smaller water-spaniel is the animal 

 best adapted. I have seen a brace so thoroughly broke, 

 and so steady, that they were the best dogs I ever shot over 

 for autumn snipe-shooting, but this is rarely the case. 



Where, however, much inland duck-shooting is to be 

 had on ground where snipe and perhaps woodcock also 

 feed — and there is much ground of that nature in Amer- 

 ica — no dogs can compete them, as they combine great 

 powerc of finding game, with vast endurance, steadiness 

 sufficient to enable them to be shot over satisfactorily — 

 though not that of the perfect pointer or setter — accompa- 

 nied by an ability to recover wounded wild fowl to a degree 

 possessed by no other animal, and without which it is use- 

 less to think of making a bag of wild fowl on inland 

 waters. 



