[60] Had you lost the bird from there being but little scent, it is probable you might have found it by renewing your search on your return homewards in the evening. If a runner, it would most likely have rejoined the covey.
[61] “Toho,” rather than “Drop,”—your object now being to make him stand at, and prevent his mouthing game; for you are satisfied that he would have “down charged” had the bird been missed.
[62] Of course, with the proviso that he is not pointing at another bird ([274]).
[63] Lest the cord should cut the turnip-tops, it might be better to employ the elastic band spoken of in [60].
[64] A superior dog on grouse more easily becomes good on partridge than a superior partridge-dog becomes good on grouse. Grouse run so much, both when they are pairing, and after the first flight of the young pack, that a dog broken on them has necessarily great practice in “roading,” (“roading,” too, with the nose carried high to avoid strong heather—a valuable instructor), whereas the dog broken on partridge often becomes impatient, and breaks away when he first finds grouse. The former dog, moreover, will learn not to “break fence,” and the necessity of moderating his pace when hunting stubbles and turnips, sooner than the latter will acquire the extensive fast beat so desirable on heather, where he can work for hours uninterrupted by hedge, ditch, or furrow; making casts to the right and left a quarter of a mile in length. First impressions are as strong in puppyhood as in childhood; therefore the advantage of having such ground to commence on must be obvious. There are, however, favoured spots in Perthshire, &c., where game so abounds that close rangers are as necessary as when hunting in England. Alas! even the grouse-dog will take far too quickly to hedge-hunting and pottering when on the stubbles. It is, of course, presumed that he is broken from “chasing hare”—a task his trainer must have found difficult (though none are ever shot to him) from the few that, comparatively speaking, his pupil could have seen. Independently, however, of want of pace and practice in roading, it never would be fair to take a dog direct from the Lowlands to contend on the Highlands with one habituated to the latter,—and vice versâ, for the stranger would always be placed to great disadvantage. A faint scent of game which the other would instantly recognise, he would not acknowledge from being wholly unaccustomed to it. Sometimes, however, a grouse-dog of a ticklish temper will not bear being constantly called to on “breaking fence.” A fine, free ranging pointer, belonging to one of the brothers H——y, when brought to an enclosed county, became quite subdued and dispirited. He could not stand the rating he received for bounding over the hedges, and he evidently derived no enjoyment from the sport, though there were plenty of birds. On returning to the Highlands, he quite recovered his animation and perseverance. He added another to the many evidences that dogs are most attached to, and at home on, the kind of country they first hunted.
[65] The ears of young hares tear readily; and there is a gristly substance, larger than half a pea, at the end of the shank-bone of the fore-leg, just above the joint, which departs with youth. Their smooth, close, sharp claws disappear afterwards; and when quite old their jaw-bones become so strong as not to yield and crack to the strongest pressure of your fingers.
When you observe that the carving knife performs the part of curling-tongs, prefer a help from the birds at the top of the table.
Ditto, ditto, in all particulars, with regard to rabbits.
[66] This appears extremely cruel; remember, however, that I entreated you to abstain entirely from shooting hares; but if you would not make this sacrifice, at least “only to fire at those which you were likely to kill outright” ([332]).
[67] Thus greatly improving it for table. The cook who first thought of breaking the legs of birds, and dragging out the sinews, ought to be immortalized. The first person I saw practising the feat was an admirable black man-cook, in the West Indies: he was preparing turkeys for a large supper; and, to my great surprise, I saw him take up each bird, cut the skin in front of and about the middle of its legs, crack the bone across that part with a blow of the knife; then stick the sinews of the foot on a hook fixed high against the wall, seize firm hold of the thigh of the turkey, give a sudden powerful pull, and leave the lower part of the leg, with a large body of sinews, perfectly stripped of all flesh, suspended on the hook.