gh breeding; though strange to say, in gracefulness of carriage, the
fox, when hunting, and actually on game, far excels him. But we are again
getting astray beyond our proper limits; let us keep to the subject of
dog-breaking.

294. As it will be your endeavor, during your pupil's first season, to
make him thoroughly stanch and steady, I cannot advise you, as a general
rule--liable, of course, to many exceptions--one of which is named in
219--to let him retrieve--by retrieve I always mean fetch--until the
following year. There is another advantage in the delay. His sagacity will
have shown him that the design of every shot is to bag the game--when,
therefore, he has once been permitted to pick up a bird, he will be
desirous of carrying it immediately to you, and will resist the temptation
to loiter with it, mouthing and spoiling it; and however keenly he may
have heretofore "sought dead," he will henceforth search with redoubled
zeal, from the delight he will experience in being permitted to carry his
game. Moreover, the season's shooting, without lifting, will have so
thoroughly confirmed him in the "down charge," that the increased[47]
inclination to bolt off in search of a falling bird will be successfully
resisted. If he has been taught while young to "fetch"--92, 94, &c.,--he
will be so anxious to take the birds to you, that instead of there being
any difficulty in teaching him this accomplishment, you will often, during
his first season, have to restrain him from lifting when he is "pointing
dead." The least encouragement will make him gladly pick up the birds, and
give them, as he ought, to no one but yourself.

295. You need hardly be cautioned not to let more than one dog retrieve
the same bird. With more dogs than one the bird would, almost to a
certainty, be torn; and if a dog once becomes sensible of the enjoyment he
would derive in pulling out the feathers of a bird, you will find it
difficult to make him deliver it up before he has in some way disfigured
it. If you shoot with several dogs that retrieve, be careful always to let
the dog who finds the game be the one to bring it. It is but fair that he
should be so rewarded, and thus all will be stimulated to hunt with
increased diligence.

296. If the dog that found the covey be not able to wind the bird you have
shot, make one of the other dogs take a large circuit. The latter may
thus, without interfering with the first dog, come upon the bird, should