the English partridge in all
its habits, except that it takes to covert in large woodlands, and
occasionally _trees_, that all the rules of hunting and beating for it,
shooting it, and breaking dogs for its pursuit, are entirely
identical.--H.W.H.

CHAPTER II.

INITIATORY LESSONS WITHIN DOORS. SHOOTING PONIES.

13. It is seldom of any advantage to a dog to have more than one
instructor. The methods of teaching may be the same; but there will be a
difference in the tone of voice and in the manner that will more or less
puzzle the learner, and retard rather than advance his education. If,
therefore, you resolve to break in your dog, do it entirely yourself; let
no one interfere with you.

14. As a general rule, let his education begin when he is about six or
seven months old[4]--although I allow that some dogs are more precocious
than others, and bitches always more forward than dogs--but it ought to be
nearly completed before he is shown a bird (111). A quarter of an hour's
daily in-door training--called by the Germans "house-breaking"--for three
or four weeks will effect more than a month's constant hunting without
preliminary tuition.

15. Never take your young dog out of doors for instruction, until he has
learnt to know and obey the several words of command which you intend to
give him in the field, and is well acquainted with all the signs which you
will have occasion to make to him with your arms. These are what may be
called the initiatory lessons.

16. Think a moment, and you will see the importance of this preliminary
instruction, though rarely imparted. Why should it be imagined that at the
precise moment when a young dog is enraptured with the first sniff of
game, he is, by some mysterious unaccountable instinct, to understand the
meaning of the word "Toho?" Why should he not conceive it to be a word of
encouragement to rush in upon the game, as he probably longs to do;
especially if it is a partridge fluttering before him, in the sagacious
endeavor to lure him from her brood, or a hare enticingly cantering off
from under his nose? There are breakers who would correct him for not
intuitively comprehending and obeying the "Toho," roared out with
stentorian lungs; though, it is obvious, the youngster, from having had no
previous instruction, could have no better reason for understanding its
import than the watch-dog chained up in the adjacent farm-yard. Again he
hears the word "Toho"--again follo