GROUSE AND PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING. 377 



in covert-shooting ; either of the above in snipe-shooting ; and the 

 water-spaniel or retriever in wildfowl-shooting. 



GROUSE AND PARTRIDGE-SHOOTING. 



In open shooting, whether of the grouse or partridge, there 

 is a great difference of opinion respecting the choice of a dog, 

 that is, whether the pointer or setter shall be selected, and, if 

 either, the particular breed. In order to arrive at any conclusion 

 on this gucestio vexata, it is desirable to consider what are the 

 chief differences between the two kinds of shooting, and also 

 between the two kinds of dog which have to beat the respective 

 grounds on which partridge and grouse are found. Every sports- 

 man knows that the former are chiefly met with in cultivated 

 corn-lands, and especially on a light sandy soil suited to barley, 

 such as that of Norfolk and part of Suffolk. Here these birds 

 are preserved in immense numbers ; and there is no heather, 

 or other rough undergrowth of any kind, to scratch the skin or 

 to wear away the hair on the legs, the only parts which suffer 

 at all being the pads of the feet. Indeed in too many cases, ac- 

 cording to my opinion, the dog is dispensed with altogether in 

 actual shooting ; and the birds being driven into the turnips by 

 spaniels assisted by a man on horseback, are afterwards walked 

 up by the shooters, who require only a retriever to find the 

 wounded birds. In wilder districts where the birds are more 

 scarce the pointer or the setter is used, but he is always worked 

 within fifty or sixty yards of his master, and is never on any 

 account suffered to " break fence." Hence the amount of ground 

 beaten is comparatively small, but it is of such a nature, being 

 composed almost entirely of stubble, fallow, or turnips, that it 

 requires a good nose to find game, while at the same time the 



