78 BREAKING A BIRD DOG 
hours and had the whole dreary day ahead 
of him with nothing to do for a year, so far 
as pheasants were concerned. About three 
weeks later, however, John's wedding was 
announced—which information may throw 
some light on his speed with the pheasants 
and his subsequent haste to get back to 
town. 
In regard to Byrd's work that day, let it 
be said that she at least “made game" on 
every pheasant we got. Not that she 
brought each one to a dead stand—though 
she did bring all but two of them to that 
desired result. This record was something 
of an achievement for any dog, let alone a 
mere puppy in her first season. It is pretty 
hard to prevent pheasants from flushing 
wild. Thus I have come to feel that, in 
many ways, a good dog on pheasants gives 
you more thrills than is the case with any 
other game. Pheasants carry away so much 
shot, hence there are so many brought out 
of the air that are merely wing tipped and 
run like the mischief, that the work of re¬ 
trieving these cripples is most exciting. Fur¬ 
thermore, it is such a nice and delicate art 
