[170]. Regular Breakers make Dogs “point” paired birds in Spring; tends to blinking.—[171]. Better not to see Game until shot over; taken out alone on a fine day in September.—[172]. Perpetually whistling to animate dogs, injudicious.—[173]. Beat largest Fields, and where least likely to find Game.—[174]. Commence from leeward; Scent bad in a calm or gale; observations on Scent; it differently affects Pointers and Setters; see Note.—[175] to [179]. Instructions in “ranging.”—[180]. Kept from hedge; Range greater on moors than stubble.—[181]. Distance between Parallels dependent on tenderness of nose.—[182]. A point at Partridge a hundred yards off.—[183]. At Grouse a hundred and fifty yards off; Mr. L——g’s opinion of distance at which Dogs wind birds.—[184]. If the Dog is to hunt with another, the Parallels to be further apart.—[185]. No interruption when winding birds, yet not allowed to puzzle; Nose to gain experience.—[186]. Birds lie well to Dog that “winds,” not “foots” them.—[187]. White Dogs most visible to birds and to you; a disadvantage and advantage; white Feet often not good; feet of Setters better than of Pointers.—[188]. Inattentive to Whistle, made to “drop,” &c.; when rating or punishing, the disregarded order or signal to be often repeated; Whip to crack loudly.—[189]. The attainment of a scientific Range difficult, but of surpassing value; the best ranger must in the end find most game.

“BREAKING” IN PAIRING SEASON.

170. A keeper nearly always breaks in his young dogs to point, (or “set” as some term it) if their ages permit it, on favourable days in Spring, when the partridges have paired.[25] He gets plenty of points, and the birds lie well. But I cannot believe it is the best way to attain great excellence, though the plan has many followers: it does not cultivate the intelligence of his pupils, nor enlarge their ideas by making them sensible of the object for which such pains are taken in hunting them. Moreover, their natural ardour (a feeling that it should be his aim rather to increase than weaken) is more or less damped by having often to stand at game, before they can be rewarded for their exertions by having it killed to them,—it prevents, rather than imparts, the zeal and perseverance for which Irish dogs are so remarkable ([565]). Particularly ought a breaker, whose pupil is of a nervous temperament, or of too gentle a disposition, to consider well that the want of all recompense for finding paired birds, must make a timid dog far more likely to become a “blinker,” when he is checked for not pointing them, than when he is checked for not pointing birds, which his own impetuosity alone deprives him of every chance of rapturously “touseling.” (See also end of [280].) The very fact that “the birds lie well” frequently leads to mischief; for, if the instructor be not very watchful, there is a fear that his youngsters may succeed in getting too close to their game before he forces them to come to a stanch point. A keeper, however, has but little choice, (and it is not a bad time to teach the back,) if his master insist upon shooting over the animals the first day of the season, and expect to find them what some call “perfectly broken in.” But I trust some few of my readers may have nobler ends in view, and that they will cheerfully sacrifice a little of their shooting the first week of the season, to ensure super-excellence in their pupils at its close. Remember, I do not object to spring drilling, (vide [131]) but to much spring pointing.

171. I will suppose your youngster to have been well grounded in his initiatory lessons, and that you take him out when the crops are nearly off the ground (by which time there will be few squeakers) on a fine cool day in September, (alas! that it cannot be an August day on the moors,) to show him birds for the first time. As he is assumed to be highly-bred, you may start in the confident expectation of killing partridges over him, especially if he be a pointer. Have his nose moist and healthy. Take him out when the birds are on the feed, and of an afternoon in preference to the morning, (unless from an unusually dry season there be but little scent,) that he may not be attracted by the taint of hares or rabbits. Take him out alone, if he evince any disposition to hunt, which, at the age we will presume him to have attained this season, we must assume that he will do, and with great zeal. Be much guided by his temper and character. Should he possess great courage and dash, you cannot begin too soon to make him point. You should always check a wild dog in racing after pigeons and small birds on their rising; whereas you should encourage a timid dog (one who clings to “heel”) in such a fruitless but exciting chase. The measures to be pursued with such an animal are fully detailed in [132], [133].

CONSTANT LOW WHISTLE INJUDICIOUS.

172. I may as well caution you against adopting the foolish practice of attempting to cheer on your dog with a constant low whistle, under the mistaken idea that it will animate him to increased zeal in hunting. From perpetually hearing the monotonous sound, it would prove as little of an incentive to exertion as a continued chirrup to a horse; and yet if habituated to it, your dog would greatly miss it whenever hunted by a stranger. Not unregarded, however, would it be by the birds, to whom on a calm day it would act as a very salutary warning.

173. Though you have not moors, fortunately we can suppose your fields to be of a good size. Avoid all which have been recently manured. Select those that are large, and in which you are the least likely to find birds until his spirits are somewhat sobered, and he begins partly to comprehend your instructions respecting his range. There is no reason why he should not have been taken out a few days before this, not to show him birds, but to have commenced teaching him how to traverse his ground. Indeed, if we had supposed him of a sufficient age ([132]), he might by this time be somewhat advanced towards a systematic beat. It is seeing many birds early that is to be deprecated, not his being taught how to range.

SCENT INEXPLICABLE.

174. Be careful to enter every field at the leeward[26] side (about the middle), that he may have the wind to work against. Choose a day when there is a breeze, but not a boisterous one. In a calm, the scent is stationary, and can hardly be found unless accidentally. In a gale it is scattered to the four quarters.[27] You want not an undirected ramble, but a judicious traversing beat under your own guidance, which shall leave no ground unexplored, and yet have none twice explored.

INSTRUCTIONS IN RANGING.