340 
FRANK FORESTER’S FIELD SPORTS. 
sional severity, will easily prevail, and render them nearly per¬ 
fect. 
As they flush their game immediately, without standing or 
crouching, it is absolutely necessary that they should be under 
perfect command ; they must never be above ten or fifteen paces 
distant from the gun, and they must be trained, until it has be 
come their second nature and instinct, to slacken their pace, in¬ 
stead of increasing it, when- they strike the trail of game, which 
the sportsman will learn by their yelp, or, if they be of the mute 
kind, by the redoubled feathering and flourishing of his bushy 
tail, and by an occasional low, impatient whimper. 
This, and to drop to shot, the instant the gun is discharged, is 
all they have necessarily to learn; although it is a great addition 
to their worth, if they are broke to retrieve their game, when 
ordered to go on, after having dropped to “ charge .” This 
dropping to charge, of infinite importance with all dogs, is even 
more important with the Springer, or Cocking Spaniel, than 
with the Pointer, or Setter; for, whereas the latter are taught 
both by their instinct and their breaking, to stand or set their 
game, there is some chance that, if they do break in after shot, 
they will still point anything on which they may chance to blun¬ 
der, while the Spaniel being broke to flush, if he stir at all, will 
indubitably run up everything that crosses his path. 
For summer or autumn Cock shooting, for Quail shooting in 
heavy covert, and for Ruffed Grouse shooting, I am satisfied 
that these little beauties would be invaluable in this country; 
and that in many districts twice as many head of game might 
be killed over them, in the same space of time, as over any 
other kind of dog. 
I have often wondered at the neglect of this variety by sports¬ 
men of this country, never having met but three gentlemen, two 
in the States and one in Canada, who used them. I hope to 
succeed in importing a brace of highly-bred, and well-broke 
Springers, of the large breed, this autumn, and to establish the 
breed. Should I be fortunate in my endeavors, it will be a 
source of much pleasure to me t? accommodate sportsmen de- 
