[9] It would expedite matters much if the groom did this while you remained near the pony to feed him, or vice versâ.
[10] “Imitative creatures!” who can doubt it? If you make an old dog perform a trick several times in the sight of a young one who is watching the proceedings, you will be surprised to see how quickly the young one will learn the trick, especially if he has seen that the old dog was always rewarded for his obedience.
[11] Obedience to all such signals will hereafter be taught out of doors at gradually increased distances: and to confirm him in the habit of sniffing high in the air ([41]) for whatever you may then hide, put the bread or meat on a stick or bush, but never in a hedge ([175]). With the view to his some day retrieving, as instanced in [277], it will be your aim to get him not to seek immediately, but to watch your signals, until by obeying them you will have placed him close to where the object lies, at which precise moment you will say energetically “Find,” and cease making any further signs.
[12] The least comprehensive and logical of the expressions, yet one often used. A dog being no critical grammarian, understands it to apply to “fur” as well as “feather.”
[13] With a resolute, reckless, dashing dog you may advantageously employ a thinner cord of double that length,—whereas, the shortest line will sometimes prevent a timid animal from ranging freely. By-the-bye, the thinner the cord the more readily does it become entangled,—as a rule, a checkcord cannot be too firmly twisted,—a soft one quickly gets knotted and troublesome. (See note to [262].)
[14] The printer finds this note on covers, shooting, and loading, so long that he will place it in an [Appendix].
[15] These fetch immense fancy prices when well shaped,—black and tan, without a single white hair, and long eared. But this breed is nearly useless to the sportsman, whereas the Blenheim is a lively diligent little fellow in light cover, and from his diminutive size threads his way through low thick brushwood more readily than might at first be imagined, being incited to great perseverance by a most enthusiastic enjoyment of the scent. In strong high turnips, he is employed with much advantage to spring the partridge. He creeps under, where a larger dog would be constantly jumping.
[16] For the benefit of those who have the good fortune, or the bad fortune, as the case may be, of always living within the sound of Bow bells, “Flick,” be it observed, is a synonym for “Fur,” thereby meaning Hare, or Rabbit.
[17] But when the moors are covered with snow, poachers, who emerge in bands from the mines, often put a shirt over their clothes, and manage to approach grouse at a time when a fair sportsman cannot get a shot; but this is the only occasion on which one uniform colour could be advantageous. A mass of any single colour always catches, and arrests the eye. Nature tells us this; animals that browse, elephants, buffaloes, and large deer, as well as those which can escape from their enemies by speed, are mostly of one colour. On the contrary, the tiger kind, snakes, and all that lie in wait for, and seize their prey by stealth, wear a garment of many colours, so do the smaller animals and most birds, which are saved from capture by the inability of their foes to distinguish them from the surrounding foliage or herbage. The uniform of our rifle corps is too much of one hue.
[18] A drier and cleaner article than you may suppose, and which can be carried not inconveniently in a Mackintosh, or oil-skin bag,—a toilet sponge bag.