From this time I never had any difficulty in getting shots at these wary birds, for the very moment they commenced running, ‘Albert’ was off until he headed them, drove them back, and flushed them, as above described.

When looking for quail, ‘Albert’ behaved quite differently, working steadily and cautiously, and never attempting to run into or spring his game until I came close up to him.”

SUWARROW.

530. Grouse were unusually on the run one misty day, when the able Judge mentioned in [490] was shooting over “Captain’s” companion, “Suwarrow.” The dog “roaded” a pack for some time very patiently, but suddenly darted off for a considerable distance to the right and dropped into a long hag, through the mazes of which Lord M——f followed as fast as the nature of the ground would permit him. Every now and then the dog just raised his head above the heather to satisfy himself that his Lordship was coming. Where the hag ceased, and “Suwarrow” could no longer conceal his movements, he commenced a very curious system of tactics, travelling, after a most extraordinary fashion, sideways on the arc of a circle, constantly keeping his stern towards its centre. At length he wheeled about, and stood stock-still at a fixed point, as if inviting Lord M——f to approach. He did so,—raised a large pack, and had a capital right and left.

531. It would appear that the “Marshal” soon perceived that he had no chance of being enabled by a regular pursuit to bring his artillery to bear upon the retreating party; he, therefore, resorted to a novel strategy to lull them into fancied security, and induce them to halt. He at once made a feint of abandoning the pursuit, and moved off to the flank. He made a forced concealed march in the hag; and when it would no longer mask his plans and he was compelled to show himself, he merely let them see his rear guard, that they might still think he was retiring, and did not show any front until he had fairly entangled them between himself and his guns. It was a feat worthy of “Wellington” or “Napoleon,” let alone “Suwarrow.” By-the-bye, it explains why Lord M——d’s dog ([295]) faced about whenever he perceived that his presence alarmed the birds.

532. If “Grouse” ([206]), Tolfrey’s bitch, “Albert,” and “Suwarrow” had been taught to “hunt from leeward to windward without the gun” ([522]), they would have been habituated to seeing game intercepted between themselves and their masters,—and then their spontaneously heading running birds (though undeniably evincing great intelligence) would not have been so very remarkable. They would but have reversed matters by placing themselves to windward of the birds while the gun was to leeward. This shows that the acquisition of that accomplishment ([522]) would be a great step towards securing a knowledge of the one we are now considering. Indeed, there seems to be a mutual relation between these two refinements in education, for the possession of either would greatly conduce to the attainment of the other.

HEADING WOUNDED BIRDS.

533. This accomplishment—and hardly any can be considered more useful—is not so difficult to teach an intelligent dog as one might at first imagine; it is but to lift him, and make him act on a larger scale, much in the manner described in [309] and [544]. Like, however, everything else in canine education—indeed, in all education—it must be effected gradually; nor should it be commenced before the dog has had a season’s steadying; then practise him in heading every wounded bird, and endeavour to make him do so at increased distances. Whenever, also, he comes upon the “heel” of a covey which is to leeward of him,—instead of letting him “foot” it,—oblige him to quit the scent and take a circuit (sinking the wind), so as to place himself to leeward of the birds. He will thereby head the covey, and you will have every reason to hope that after a time his own observation and intellect will show him the advantage of thus intercepting birds and stopping them when they are on the run, whether the manœuvre places him to leeward or to windward of them.[95]

SETTER TO RETRIEVE.

534. If you could succeed in teaching but one of your dogs thus to take a wide sweep when he is ordered, and head a running covey before it gets to the extremity of the field (while the other dogs remain near you), you would be amply rewarded for months of extra trouble in training, by obtaining shots on days when good sportsmen, with fair average dogs, would hardly pull a trigger. And why should you not? Success would be next to certain, if you could as readily place your dog exactly where you wish, as shepherds do their collies ([143]). And whose fault will it be if you cannot? Clearly not your dog’s, for he is as capable of receiving instruction as the shepherd’s.