158 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SFORTS. 
charging ; that one insists on his dog pointing his dead birds 
before fetching them ; another suffers his to go on and fetch as 
soon as he has loaded ; and yet a third takes no heed at all, but 
suffers his brute to rush in as soon as the gun is discharged. 
The last is, of course, a barbarism, to which no one worthy 
of being called a sportsman will resort; the others are still held 
to be mooted points ; and there are sportsmen who hold to both. 
I do not myself admit any doubt on the subject; nor do I esteem 
any dog broken, which does not drop to charge, at the report, 
without stirring from the place,—which does not lie at charge, 
until ordered to “ hold up,” and which does not point his dead 
game, until desired to “ fetch.” Still, so long as diversity of 
opinion exists on these points, and dogs are broken according 
to the good or bad judgment of owners and breakers, different 
animals cannot be expected to hunt harmoniously together; and 
so unfortunate is the propensity both of men and beasts to 
learn evil more easily than good knowledge, that two or three 
days’ companionship with a rash, headstrong, rushing brute, 
will, it is likely, play the very deuce with your carefully broken 
dogs, and cause them to contract tricks, which it will cost you 
much pains and trouble to eradicate. 
It is so very common an occurrence, while in pursuit of spring 
Snipe, to find different kinds of Wild Duck, particularly the 
two varieties of Teal, the Wood Duck, the Mallard, and the 
Pintail, that it is well worth the while to cany a few red car¬ 
tridges of No. 1 or No. 2 shot,—Col. Hawker observing of 
these missiles, “ that for a wild open country, or shooting by 
day at wild fowl, he cannot say too much in their favor in 
their present improved state.” 
It is scarcely necessary to state here, that when two persons 
are shooting in company, neither must on any account think of 
firing at a bird which, however fairly it may rise to himself, 
flies across his companion. Each sportsman should take the 
bird which flies outwardly from the common centre ; by doing 
which he will not only avoid the incivility of shooting across his 
friend’s face, but will, in the long run, bring many more birds 
