294 FIELD SHOOTING. 



Jack ran in again. I hallooed, but he kept on, 

 and again I shot at him ; then he came back. 

 Once again he started to run in, but upon my 

 hallooing " Steady ! " he halted, and backed the 

 point of the old dog. This was the first point 

 he ever made in his life, and he hardly knew 

 whether it was right or not. I went up and 

 petted him, upon which he give indications that 

 he understood what he was wanted to do. From 

 that out he backed the old dog well. He was a 

 little eager afterwards, but upon the whole 1 

 consider him to have been the easiest-broken 

 dog that I ever handled. 



He took to retrieving, and was a rare good one 

 at it ; in duck-shooting, one of the best I ever 

 had. In retrieving ducks he went at a gallop, 

 swam as fast as he could, and brought in the 

 dead at his best pace. There was no loafing 

 about or slow walking with the duck in his 

 mouth in his way of doing the work. A slow 

 retriever for ducks is not good. While he is 

 fooling about a flock or two of ducks, seeing 

 him, sheer off, and the shooter loses chances 

 which he might improve. When retrieving grouse 

 or quail, Jack would point live birds with a 

 dead one in his mouth. He was very eager to 



