I have tried poodles, but always found them inferior in strength, scent, and courage. They are also very apt to be sea-sick. The Portland dogs are superior to them.
A water-dog should not be allowed to jump out of a boat, unless ordered so to do, as it is not always required, and therefore needless that he should wet himself and every thing about him without necessity.
For a punt or canoe, always make choice of the smallest Newfoundland dog that you can procure; as the smaller he is the less water he brings into your boat after being sent out; the less cumbersome he is when afloat; and the quicker he can pursue crippled birds upon the mud. A bitch is always to be preferred to a dog in frosty weather, from being, by nature, less obstructed in landing on the ice.
If, on the other hand, you want a Newfoundland dog only as a retriever for covert shooting, then the case becomes different; as here you require a strong animal, that will easily trot through the young wood and high grass with a large hare or pheasant in his mouth.—Brown—Hawker.
Water Fowl, s. Fowl that live or get their food in water.
Water Hen, Common Gallinule, or Moorhen, (Fulica chloropus, Linn.; La Poule d’Eau, Buff.) s.
The weight of this bird varies from ten and a half to fifteen ounces; the length from the tip of the beak to the end of the tail is about fourteen inches, the breadth twenty-two; the bill is rather more than an inch long, of a greenish yellow at the tip, and reddish towards the base, whence a singular kind of horny or membranous substance shields the forehead as far as the eyes; this appendage to the bill is as red as sealing-wax in the breeding season; at other times it varies or fades into a white colour. The head is small and black, except a white spot under each eye, the irides which are red; all the upper part of the plumage is of a dark shining olive green, inclining to brown; the under parts are of a dark hoary lead colour; vent feathers black; those on the belly and thighs tipped with dirty white; long loose feathers on the sides, which hang over the upper part of the thighs, are black, streaked with white; the ridge of the wing, outside feathers of the tail, and those underneath, are white; the upper bare part of the thighs is red; from the knees to the toes, the colours are different shades, from pale yellow to deep green; the toes are very long, the middle one measuring to the end of the nail, nearly three inches; their undersides are broad, being furnished with membranous edgings their whole length on each side, which enable the bird to swim, and easily run over the surface of the slimy mud by the sides of the waters where it frequents.
The female makes her nest of a large quantity of withered reeds and rushes, closely interwoven, and is particularly careful to have it placed in a most retired spot, close by the brink of the waters, and it is said, she never quits it without covering her eggs with the leaves of the surrounding herbage. Pennant and Latham say, she builds her nest upon some low stump of a tree, or shrub, by the water side; no doubt she may sometimes vary the place of her nest, according as particular circumstances may command, but she generally prefers the other mode of building it. She lays six or seven eggs at a time, and commonly has two hatchings in a season. The eggs are nearly two inches in length, and are irregularly and thinly marked with rust-coloured spots on a yellowish white ground. The young brood remain but a short time in the nest, under the nurturing care of the mother, but as soon as they are able to crawl out they take to the water, and shift for themselves.