WONDERFUL WORK 83 
see her pick up the trail. She covered that 
whole field in a wide circle and then came 
straight back toward us. Pheasants will do 
that—double right back on you—and you 
will lose them unless you have a dog such as 
we were blessed with that day. 
Pretty soon Byrd came to a dead stand. 
As I went to her I could see the pheasant fac¬ 
ing her, squatted low and blending splen¬ 
didly into the surroundings. It was such an 
interesting spectacle that I watched the dog 
hold the point thus for a minute or two. 
Then I backed up and walked around to the 
rear of the pheasant, when I stuck out my 
foot and touched his tail feathers. There 
was immediately a terrific rush of wings as 
he tried to bound into the air straight over 
Byrd’s head. But she was too fast for him! 
With one quick leap she grabbed him before 
he could get away and held him firmly, yet 
carefully, until I came up and took him from 
her. Thus she had, in the space of but a few 
moments, trailed one bird that would have 
got away, caught it while still running 
and brought it back to me; then in the very 
next field she had duplicated the perform- 
