likely to be on one spot as another. Hence every inch of ground must be beaten, and often a day's sport covers two or three thousand acres or even more. The scent of the grouse is also stronger than that of the partridge, and from the nature of the heather he is disposed to lie closely, unless made wild by constant disturbance, so that with good dogs he is seldom put up out of shot. The heather is very rough and irritating, and as it works up between the toes it makes the interspaces extremely sore if they are not well covered with hair.

From these varying circumstances it results that a careful dog, not ranging too wide, but going steadily to work, and keeping at it at such a pace as to make sure of not flushing a bird, perfectly steady" before and behind" and "down charge," is the dog for partridge-shooting; while a wider ranger, with perhaps a trifle less delicacy of nose, will be preferred for grouse-shooting, especially if he will last for a longer time at his work, and will bear the constant friction of the heather. Now it is clear to every one who has had much experience of the two kinds of dog, that the pointer has the more delicate nose; for though some setters may compete with any pointer in this particular, yet, on the whole, the average of setters are inferior to the average of pointers in powers of scent. The pointer is also more easily broken, and when perfect, remains so with more certainty, but he has the disadvantage of more readily tiring, and his toes sooner become sore if used in heather. On the whole, therefore, though there are numerous exceptions, the pointer is more suited to partridge-shooting, and the setter to grouse. If, however, the sportsman has a fancy for

or against either, and selects the smooth dog for the moors, he should fix upon a strong coarse-haired dog, and those with a cross of the foxhound seem to be generally preferred; but they have some of the disadvantages of the setter, being much more difficult to break than the genuine pointer, but are far more hardy and enduring. Indeed, some of this breed will beat the setter in pace and endurance; while the nose of the hound, being as good as that of the pointer, or nearly so, does not lower the power of scent, but it has a tendency to make the dog lose that fine handsome range which the true breed possess, as displayed in the high carriage of the head when at work, which is so beautiful to the eye of the sportsman. With regard to the peculiar breed of each which is to be selected, I should advise the modern pointer without the foxhound cross (or, if any, very remote), taking care that there is endurance enough to carry the dog through a good day's shooting. On the average, few pointers will beat as they should do for more than four or six hours, and even this amount of work cannot be maintained for many days together. I have had one or two dogs which no one man could tire, but these were light greyhound-like animals; and though they could do wonders on a good scenting day, they were useless on a dry September afternoon, without any wind stirring. It is true that few dogs will find game on such a day; but there are some which will reduce their pace accordingly, and these are generally to be found among the true pointers, bred with as large heads as possible, consistently with the possession of frames suited to go through their work. They need not be very fast, but they should keep at their work steadily, and in that way

will cover a vast deal of ground in a short time, never flushing even a single bird, and rarely leaving one behind them. Such a dog, if well matched with another, is the one to kill game to; and if the sportsman will only give the brace time to try their ground, and will avoid spoiling them by running in to wounded birds and other indiscretions, he will find that for all kinds of open shooting they are invaluable. Irish setters are thought very highly of by some people; but those which I have used have been headstrong and unruly, while I never found any superiority in their noses, nor is their endurance, as far as I have seen, greater than that of our best English breeds. With a dog formed like the animal from which the engraving at page 97 was taken, great endurance may be expected, and his nose was equal to any emergency. The Russian setter I know very little of, so can give no reliable opinion on his merits.

In conducting the beat, whether for partridge or grouse, it is always desirable to give these dogs the wind, inasmuch as they generally find their game by the scent wafted to them in the air, and not by the foot-scent. Sometimes they are obliged to "road" a running bird, especially with grouse, which will often take the pointer or setter a long way, and a stupidly stiff oldfashioned pointer which refuses to stir is an abomination. Nothing is more annoying than to see birds get up far out of shot, while the pointer is "steady as a crutch" at his first point, where he caught the scent and where they started from. A sensible dog would either have drawn up to his birds after waiting till his master was close up, or he would have left his

point and gone round to head them if he was unusually clever in his vocation. Such a feat is by no means unattainable, if dogs are broken to beat towards the shooter as explained at page 258; but some stupid brutes will never learn to do it of their own accord, and must be sent round by their master, which causes delay and takes away half the advantage of the plan. Beyond a repetition of the cautions as to making the dog work to hand, and keeping him steady "down charge," there is little more to be said on the use of the pointer and

setter.

SNIPE-SHOOTING.

The following observations on snipe-shooting in Ireland, by an Irish sportsman, recently appeared in the columns of "The Field;" and, as the writer has had far more experience in this department of sport than I can lay claim to, I prefer introducing these extracts to inserting the results of my own experience, which, however, are strictly in accordance with his.

'In Ireland the best sportsmen do not commence snipe-shooting until the November frosts set in. This is sometimes considered an old-fashioned prejudice; but there are good reasons why it should be postponed until that season. For, although the birds bred here are in good condition in September, or even earlier, they do not, except to the mere tyro, afford any

thing like the same sport.

Instead of the ringing scream and rapid eccentric flight with which they dart away from the shooter through the thin frosty air of a winter's day, they flutter up with a faint cry from his feet, fly straight forward, and pitch almost immediately; while, to the gourmand, the difference in flavour between a bird placed on the table in September and December is almost as great as between a spent salmon and one fresh run from the sea. On the other hand, those birds which arrive here in October, during the equinoctial gales, are so thin and worn out with their long flight as scarcely to be worth powder and shot.

"In shooting these birds, with or without a dog, it is always better to hunt down the wind, as, unless it is blowing a hurricane, they always fly against it. By this means the sportsman will get two shots for one he would otherwise obtain. The popular idea that the slightest graze will bring down a snipe is, like many popular ideas, a fallacy; no bird requires more careful marking. After being fired at, I have known them fly nearly out of sight when shot clean through the body, and then drop suddenly dead. This happens most frequently when very light shot has been used; and for that reason I would always recommend the shooter to load the second barrel with No. 6 shot. It has another advantage. He will often meet hares, teal, and duck at distances where his light shot would be thrown away; and it is well to be prepared for them. If a snipe stops screaming and stoops in his flight after being fired at, it is a pretty

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