2o8 
NATURE NOTES 
in the most gentle manner put his nose down and brought out 
fish after fish and laid it at his master’s feet, without hurting 
them the least. The fish were put in water and so kept alive 
until the pond was refilled. He was so wonderfully gentle and 
tender-mouthed that he never seemed to hurt anything he caught 
hold of with a friendly feeling. He would carry an egg in his 
mouth without breaking it, and no matter what we did to him he 
would never attempt to bite us. He was very savage, however, 
to strangers, and was a wonderfully good house-dog. If he saw 
any person he did not like the look of, all his coat would stand 
on end, and his whole character seemed to change until we 
quieted him. 
When my brother J. went to college, I remember Bounce 
was perfectly miserable and would eat nothing for two days, and 
refused to be comforted, but took possession of J.’s room and 
kept guard there. At last we coaxed him out, thinking he 
would come downstairs and be happy with the others, but this 
he refused to do, and would only lie outside the door until his 
moody fit passed. When J. went away he gave Bounce into 
my charge, and once when he was ill I ordered one of the men 
to give him some castor oil. After a short time the man sent 
for me, and looking very white he informed me he had not been 
able to drench Bounce as he had tried to bite him, and would 
not allow him to open his mouth. So I took the oil from the 
man, and going into the stable I found poor Bounce looking very 
ill and wretched. I first talked to him and patted him, and then 
without any difficulty I opened his mouth and poured down the 
medicine. He did not seem to mind my doing it in the least, 
and I am glad to say he soon quite recovered. 
My brother, when at home, used to have Bounce to sleep at 
the foot of his bed. This was against my father’s orders, and 
sometimes after J. had gone to bed, my father would pay him a 
visit. J., knowing his step, would fling something over Bounce 
and tell him to lie quiet, and he seemed to understand, for he 
would lie like a mouse until my father had left the room and 
shut the door. Then he would jump up, shake himself, and lie 
down again in his accustomed place. 
At this time we had two other dogs, a setter and a Bedling- 
ton terrier. They were great friends, and often in the day they 
used to disappear, and we could never imagine where they went. 
At last they were watched, and it was discovered that they used 
to go off rabbiting on their own account, and the funny thing 
was that they seemed to have a settled plan between them to 
divide the labour. 
The terrier, being much the smaller, used to go into the 
bushes and send out the rabbits, while the setter would watch 
patiently outside until a rabbit was started and then give chase. 
One day the setter had hurt his foot, and so could not get along 
very quickly, but notwithstanding this accident the two dogs set 
off as usual. My brother, thinking he would like to see how 
