willing to allow that the pointer is improved in any quality that renders him valuable to the sportsman, by a cross with the hound or any other sort of dog; though we cannot deny that the setter is materially improved in appearance by a cross with the Newfoundland, but what it gains in appearance, it loses in other respects.

Breeding mongrels, especially crossing with hounds, has given the gamekeepers and dog-breakers an infinity of trouble which might have been. avoided by keeping the blood pure. The best pointer is the offspring of a pointer-bitch by a pointer-dog; such an one is nearly broken by nature. The Spanish pointer seldom requires the whip; the hound pointer has never enough of it. One of the main sources of the sportsman's pleasure is to see the dogs point well.

Dogs should be constantly shot over during the season by a successful shot, and exercised during the shooting recess by some person who understands well the management of them, otherwise they will fall off in value-the half-bred ones will become unmanageable, and even the thorough-bred ones will acquire disorderly habits.

We look upon the setter to be an inferior kind of pointer, perhaps originally a cross between the pointer and the spaniel or some such dog as the Newfoundland, for it has some qualities in common with each. The pointer has the finer nose, and is more staunch than the setter; his action is much finer. Pointers are averse to water; setters delight in it. The setter will face briars and gorse

bushes better than the pointer, which is in this respect a tender dog; and for this reason the setter is preferred to the pointer for cover shooting. Besides, his being not so staunch as the pointer is an additional advantage in heavy covers. The sportsman who shoots over well-broken pointers, frequently passes game in woods, while the pointers, which are not seen by him, are at their point; the setter, being more impatient to run in, affords the shooter many shots in cover, which the over-staunch pointer would not. The pointer is always to be preferred on open grounds. In hot weather the pointer will endure more fatigue than the setter.

DOG-BREAKING.

To ensure good sport, the shooter must be provided with good dogs. However abundant game may be, there can be no real sport without good dogs; and however scarce game may be, a good day's sport is attainable with good dogs, by a person who feels what sport is, and who does not look upon filling the game-bag and loading the keepers with game, as the sole end and aim of the sportsman's occupation. The mere act of killing game no more constitutes sport, than the jingling of rhyme constitutes poetry. Since, then, good dogs contribute to good sport, the shooter should be careful to whom he entrusts the breaking of them. Bad habits, by dogs as well as by bipeds, are sooner acquired than got rid of. If it suit his convenience, the shooter should frequently accompany the breakers when practising his dogs: he should direct them

to make use of few words, and those words should be the same that he is in the habit of using. A multiplicity of directions only serves to puzzle a dog, as a person's speaking Irish, Scotch, and Welsh alternately would perplex a Spaniard !

In common with other sports, shooting has a vocabulary of its own. We subjoin a list of some of the words made use of by breakers and sportsmen to dogs, many of them being anything but euphonious to the unaccustomed ear. To-ho spoken in an under tone, when the dog is ranging, is a warning to him that he is close upon game, and is a direction to him to stand. There is no necessity for using it to a dog that knows his business. Spoken in a peremptory manner, it is used to make the dog crouch when he has run up game, or been otherwise in fault. Down-charge, or down-to-charge, is to make the dog crouch while the shooter charges. Take-heed, and be-careful, are used when the dog ranges over ground where it is customary to find birds. Take-heed, is a word of correction; becareful, of encouragement. The former is used by way of caution or notice to prevent the dog putting up birds by running over the ground too fast; the latter is likewise a caution, but used when the dog beats slowly or carelessly. Back, is used to make a dog follow at heel. 'Ware fence, is used to prevent dogs passing a fence before the gun. The dog should never, on any account, leave an enclosure until its master has left it. 'Ware or beware, is used to rate a dog for giving chase to a hare, birds,

or cattle, or for pointing larks, or approaching too near the heels of a horse. Seek, is a direction to the dog to look for a dead or wounded bird, hare, or rabbit. Dead, is to make a dog relinquish his hold of dead or wounded game. The dog should not touch a dead bird, but should retain possession of wounded game until it is taken from him; for should he suffer a bird that is only slightly wounded to disengage himself from his grasp, another seek becomes necessary, and the bird is either lost, or despoiled of its plumage by the catching and recatching.

The dog should fall when the gun is fired, and remain down until he is told to seek, when he should point the dead bird. A pointer that drops to shot, becomes an excellent retriever.

The dog should be taught to obey the eye and the hand, rather than the voice. A dog that will do so is invaluable, in open grounds, when birds are wild!

Whenever speaking to a dog, whether encouragingly or reprovingly, the sportsman should endeavour to look what he means, and the dog will understand him. The dog will understand the look, if he does not the words. The sportsman should never, with a smile on his countenance, punish a dog; nor commend him when he has done well, but with an apparent hearty good will: the dog will then take an interest in obeying him. Gamekeepers and dog-breakers are often odd fellows, and seldom natives of the place where they follow their

avocation. Many of them are particularly loquacious to the dogs. Should one of these queer specimens jabber in a Cornish or Yorkshire dialect to a dog trained on the Grampians, the dog will understand from his look whether he is pleased or offended, but nothing more. The dog has not the gift of tongues, but he is a Lavater in physiognomy!

A dog-breaker who has not a good temper, or what is tantamount thereto, a plentiful store of patience, should never be employed, or he will ruin any really valuable dog entrusted to his care. Dogbreakers are an impatient race of people, and it is but natural that they should be so, since nothing tries the patience more than the management of a number of young dogs of different dispositions, except shooting over bad ones.

A young dog that carries his head well up when beating, should be chosen in preference to one that hunts with his nose on the ground.* The handsomest dog is that which shows the most breed; the most valuable that which affords the sportsman the greatest number of shots.

It is more desirable to break young dogs in company with a pointer than with a setter. The former makes a more decided point than the latter.

The dog should be taught to quarter his ground well. He should cross over before the shooter continually, at not more than twenty paces distance in advance, ranging about thirty paces on either hand, and leaving no part of his ground unbeaten.

It is not only the best dog that carries his head up, but game will suffer him to approach nearer than one that tracks them.