6 
BREAKING A BIRD DOG 
puppies, all of which have been keen to hunt 
almost from the day they were whelped. 
Certain it is that all the little rascals of her 
first litter were “birdier” at five months than 
their mother was at fifteen. But again I 
digress. 
To help out in the work I took along a very 
fine Pointer for which I had formed a great 
fondness, having hunted over him the season 
before in Illinois. We had not been out so 
very long before “Old Ned” made a charac¬ 
teristic and beautiful stand and I decided not 
to put the check cord on Byrd, but rather let 
her come up to him and see what, if any, at¬ 
tention she would pay to his pose; and what, 
if anything, she would do. We were not long 
in doubt. She went right on past him as if 
nothing at all were indicated by Ned’s 
statuesque stand. Every which way the 
birds flew when she flushed them. The sad 
part of it to me was that she seemed not at 
all to realize what she had done. In fact, she 
appeared scarcely to notice the quail at all. 
That is what cut me to the quick. 
And right here now, before we go any 
further, I want to discuss just this thing. 
