194 The Carnivora. 
grouse, partridge, or pheasant, which they have never even 
seen, arouses in these puppies a dormant consciousness, and 
a strong disposition to assume the attitude’ which has been 
habitual to their ancestors for many generations. This 
thoroughly justifies the sportsman’s anxiety to obtain dogs 
of good pedigree. 
My own retriever Carlo I. never saw another dog work 
until he could do everything that a dog ought, in finding, 
standing, and’ retrieving snipe and quail, and bringing duck 
to bag from the exceedingly difficult ground of the Austya- 
lian “ti-tree” swamps, and that without much in the way 
of tuition from me; and at a very early age he exhibited 
remarkable powers of reflection. It was my custom to shoot, 
together with an old friend, on a creek emptying itself into 
Moreton Bay. The wild fowl which we drove before us 
down the creek invariably went to a salt swamp about half 
a mile from its mouth, where we attacked them at 10 am. 
and made the bag of the day; after which, breakfast (con- 
sisting of a single biscuit and a draught of water) was 
served out to “all hands”—viz., two men and a dog—on 
the only spot of dry, firm ground within miles. The creek 
wound about through « dense fringe of mangrove scrub. 
the stems of which in places stood but a few inches apart. 
In this scrub I lost my dog, then a mere puppy, and failed 
to bring him up to call. Rushing about in the wet and 
dense cover, he was unable to hear me. After some time, 
I gave it up as a hopeless task, trusting that he would find 
his way home, notwithstanding a lurking apprehension that 
he might wander for days without food or water. among 
those thousands of acres of salt marshes, and die, as more 
than one man has, a miserable death. Perhaps no human 
being—not even the blacks—had so mastered the intricacies 
of that desolate breeding ground of wild fowl as had my 
friend and myself, and the dog had frequently been over it 
with us, and, as the event proved, must have possessed a 
strong sense of locality. On arriving at the breakfast place— 
