of imparting any grade
of education, however incomplete; at least they do not--I wish they would;
few would thank them more than myself.

315. Greatly vexed at the erroneous way in which I saw some dogs
instructed in the north by one who from his profession should have known
better, I promised, on the impulse of the moment, to write. If I could
have purchased any work which treated the subject in what I considered a
judicious and perspicuous manner, and, above all, which taught by what
means a _finished_ education could be imparted, I would gladly have
recommended the study of it,--have spared myself the trouble of detailing
the results of my own observations and experience,--and not have sought to
impose on any one the task of reading them. When I began the book, and
even when I had finished it, I intended to put it forth without any token
by which the writer might be discovered. Mr. Murray, however, forcibly
represented that unless the public had some guarantee for the fidelity of
the details there would be no chance of the little work being circulated,
or proving useful; therefore, having written solely from a desire to
assist my brother sportsmen and to show the injudiciousness of severity,
with a wish that my readers might feel as keen a zest for shooting as I
once possessed, and with a charitable hope that they might not be
compelled to seek it in as varied climates as was my lot, I at once
annexed my address and initials to the manuscript.

W.N.H.

_United Service Club, Pall Mall._

EDITOR'S NOTE.

In section 299, page 643, Col. Hutchinson argues _against_ a retrieving
Pointer or Setter, pointing a dead bird when ordered "_find_," and not
lifting it until ordered to "fetch." This is the single rule of breaking
in which I wholly differ from the Colonel; but _here_ I differ so widely,
that I would not own a dog which did _not_ point until ordered to "fetch;"
and I consider that one which "fetches" without pointing, when simply
ordered to "find," is worthless.

Col. Hutchinson argues that there is a difference in the scent of a
wounded and an unwounded bird, which enables a dog certainly to
discriminate between the two, so that he may be trusted to point all the
live birds he may meet in the way to find his dead bird, and yet to rush
upon the latter and pick him up without making any pause. On the other
hand, he argues as if there were _no_ difference in the scent of the two,
when he says that if th