& 
a 
upon this subject. They urge that it 
is time to develop a new type of grouse 
dog, or, at least, a new system of train- 
ing for the breeds already in use to 
enable them to cope with the rapidly 
advancing strategy of this up-and-com- 
ing game bird. 












HE grouse is a progressive and re- 
sponds very quickly to the uncon- 
scious training which we give him. 
Every bird shot at and missed is a 
wiser bird for the experience. More- 
over, we soon kill off the silly members 
of the family and by elimination leave 
for breading the wariest specimens in 
the woods. It is only natural that the 
offspring should acquire an hereditary 
instinct of caution and receive at birth 
some of the qualities which the parent 
fowl learned from experience. That 
something of the sort is going on is 
certainly apparent in the changed be- 
havior of the grouse family as a whole. 
Time was when a good grouse dog had 
to be either a setter or pointer, with 
the choice among experienced sports- 
men running about even. The char- 
acteristic quality sought by breeder and 
trainer in developing a grouse dog was 
caution; the racing, high-headed style 
so sought after in the quail dog was 
condemned when it appeared in grouse 
cover. In fact, it was an axiom among 
shooting men that a good grouse dog 
was next to useless on quail, while a 
prime quail dog was worse than use- 
less if he followed his quail tactics 
when grouse were on the menu. Another 
essential of the grouse dog, a require- 
ment made understandable by a con- 
sideration of the normally thick cover 
in which the bird is found, was that he 
never got far from his master. There 
is nothing so exasperating as to lose 
an hour or two out of a rare and glori- 
ous October day in trying to locate a 
dog which has worked himself out of 
sight and hearing in a birch and alder 
swamp. The best of the dogs devel- 
oped a game sense; that is, they 
learned to waste no time on ground 
that was not likely to hold a bird, but 
they worked very cautiously and care- 
fully in promising territory. It is very 
easy for a dog to over-run a bird when 
the latter is lying close, particularly if 
the bird has been flushed once, and 
more particularly if it has been flushed, 
shot at and missed. 
HAvine just dropped in, the scent 
is very much localized and a dog 
may pass within a few feet of a bird 
under these circumstances and fail to 
detect its presence, though ten minutes 
later he could hardly fail to do so, 
Owing to the bird having moved about 
a bit in the meantime, and also to the 
fact that the scent has been dispersed 
Over a wider area. Some of the old- 
y 
x 

Bird ahead! Here’s an open shot for you. 
timers claim that a grouse can “hold 
its scent,” meaning thereby that the 
bird has some mysterious control over 
its efluvia, but this is a doubtful and 
futile theory since the circumstance 
can be easily accounted for naturally. 
As a youngster, I often trailed along 
after a local market shooter who, with 
the first frosts, was always afield with 
his setter bagging grouse and wood- 
cock which he shipped to markets in 
Boston. It was my impression then, 
somewhat influenced no doubt, by a 
youthful and very keen appreciation of 
the value of a dol- 
lar, that he made a 
very good thing at 
a trade which was, 
at that time, both 
lawful and fasci- 
nating. He told me 
that he received 
two dollars a brace 
for his grouse; 
woodcock, as I re- 
call it, brought a 
slightly lower 
price. His daily 
bag ran from ten 
to twenty of both 
species. He shot a 
S-h.o Tt teeapeaer = 
relled open-bored, 
ten bore Scott gun, 
and the last time 
that I ever saw 
him in the field 
was the first time 
that I ever saw 
smokeless powder 
—‘wood powder,” 
we called it then— 
cartridges. 
He was an excel- 
lent shot and, boy- 

like, my interest centered itself on the 
miracle of wingshooting. Had my 
judgment been better I would have 
spent less time in watching the shooter 
and very much more in observing his 
big setter. 
~ VEN so, my mind is yet full of pic- 
tures of that patient, sagacious 
animal at his work. Duke was seldom 
out of sight and never out of reach 
of his master’s low whistle; I never 
knew him to over-run a bird. Game was 
(Continued on page 634) 

If you don’t “connect” he'll dart back into the 
scrud oaks. 
581 
