the possibility of confusing him with two trails, walked across a piece of fallow land, then through a small covert, across a patch of turnips, round two sides of a field of standing corn, and passed through a corner of the latter on to some high ground in a meadow, whence the track could be seen at several points. My friend being greatly interested in the result of a trial altogether new to him, had imposed a somewhat severe, but not in any way unfair task on the dog, by taking a very irregular course, including one right angle, the whole distance being not less than half a mile by his computation, I sent the dog to seek, and he went off on the trail through the standing corn where we had passed, and at every point at which he was visible he was hunting with his nose down and on the trail. We saw him cross the fallow, returning with the handkerchief in his mouth, but after that he took a much more direct line, and must have crossed nearly the whole of the cornfield, coming out at a place a considerable distance from where he had entered, and made straight for our position.

During that and the following shooting season I was often requested to make this experiment, with never any approach to a failure, and as often offered very high prices for the dog. One young gentleman, conspicuously deficient in everything except wealth, would have paid an immense sum for him for the base purpose of betting on his performances; but, apart from the impossibility of separating myself from a friend to whose watchfulness I had probably more than once owed my life in Australia, the buyer could have acquired only his body. This young man's acquaintance with dogs had been derived from the show bench, where there was nothing to teach him that a dog may be very much more than a collection of "points" easily transferred from one owner to another without deterioration. Carlo I. would have done nothing of the kind described for anyone except myself, and he condescended only to do work on game for one or two intimate friends when he knew that I was not far off.

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There is, indeed, no possibility of transferring the working qualities of a first-rate retriever, for they depend on the interest he takes in sport in association with the man who has shown him the way to employ his faculties in a pursuit which affords him pleasure.

The scent of anyone with whom a dog is familiar seems to linger for some time about a place, and even in the air, and there can be no question that the animal can thus identify a person whom he does not at the time see. Carlo I. became much attached to one of my sisters, who took care of him in my occasional absence from home for the day, but he made no friendships with other members of the family. This sister used to frequently go to my "den" to write her letters or consult a book while I was out for a walk with the dog. On returning I knew with certainty whether she had been into the room, for the dog would walk round, not with his nose down, wagging his tail with almost as much energy as if she were present.

During the year this must have happened repeatedly, and, on inquiry, he was always found to have been correct. On one occasion considerably more than an hour elapsed since she had entered the room, merely to place some letters on the table, and had remained but a minute or two, yet he indicated his knowledge of the fact in his accustomed manner. No demonstration of the kind ever took place after a visit from any other member of the family. It may be concluded, then, that associating this person with a sense of consolation and companionship, during my absence, those ideas were recalled to his mind and identified with her whenever he scented her, and he was impelled to express his pleasure. This "den" was situated in what had been a harness room at the back of the stable, through which it was necessary to pass to reach it, and shut off from the yard by three doors. Yet, on approaching the outer door, I was always certain if she happened to be in the room by his dancing round me and wagging his tail in anticipation of seeing her.

Not to weary the reader with more instances, which could be given, of this particular case, I will pass on to others of a a somewhat different character, but indicative of the same power of identification. The most recent occurred lately with Carlo II.

I was walking up Haverstock-hill, a good many people passing at the time, when the dog, a few yards in front of me, threw up his nose, sniffed the air, wagged his tail, then turned and ran past me round a corner a short distance behind. Following him, I found him making friends with a young lady who had passed me unnoticed, and with whose family we were on intimate terms. At the moment when first he became conscious of her presence he could not have seen her, as she would then have turned the corner. A few days subsequently I saw her mother approaching in Park-road, some thirty or forty yards away. The dog trotted past her without seeing her or making any sign, but long before we met I saw him turn, hesitate, sniff the air, wag his tail, and run back to greet her.

Looking over my notes, I find several more instances of this kind of recognition by scent of persons with whom the dog was well acquainted. There may be a doubt whether he identified them respectively as A., B., C., &c. (though there can be none in the case of my sister), but the expression of pleasure immediately on perceiving the scent points at least to the recognition of a friend by the sense of smell. I think there is a strong presumption that the association of ideas is in all cases carried as far as complete identification of the scent with a particular person, and the dog recalls the several ideas which go to make up the individuality as it is apprehended by his mind.

This should cause us no surprise when we reflect on the power of discrimination exhibited by a sporting dog. To the human olfactory sense a living or recently killed snipe or partridge gives no distinct odour, yet these birds possess, for the dog, so potent an odour, that with the wind in his

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favour he perceives it at a distance of forty yards or more. Many sportsmen have told me, and I have seen it in my own dogs, that they can generally tell whether the pointer or setter is standing fur or feather, or even different kinds of winged game.

Some sportsmen are unobservant, or so much more concerned about the "bag" than interested in the movements of their dogs, to pay any attention to such matters, and are apt to regard this as a mere fancy. Every man I have met with, however, who has had the intelligence to train his own dog has remarked it. Carlo I. was quite familiar with snipe and quail in Australia, but his attitude on first finding a covey of partridges in England, was totally different. He almost lay down to the scent, and always did so subsequently. When standing a hare his tail was carried very low, while he stood upright. On a pheasant in a hedge or ditch he stood like a pointer, while his manner on snipe might be described as sneaking."

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When a wounded pheasant falls in cover, this power of discrimination comes into play remarkably. The bird runs perhaps two hundred yards before it is picked up by the dog; in the meantime, hares, rabbits, and other pheasants have probably crossed its path, but the first-rate retriever -there are not too many of them, to be sure, but this is invariably the fault of the trainer or owner-sticks to that scent, and brings the bird to bag, possibly because the odour of a wounded bird losing blood may be different from that of an unwounded bird.

Everyone who is acquainted with the beach at Brighton, with its water-worn pebbles, will understand the difficulty of finding any particular stone, unless it differs very conspicuously from the others. By careful examination, we may often observe some slight peculiarity sufficient for identification which would not be perceived by the eye of a dog. I was accustomed, when walking on the beach with a friend, to pick up some stone having any slight recognisable mark

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on it, and to carry it in my hand for a few minutes; then, asking the friend to hold the dog and cover his eyes, I would throw the stone fifty or sixty yards along the beach, and send him for it, merely waving my hand in the direction. He would then quarter the ground carefully, and very seldom failed to bring back the stone in few minutes. It is not too much to say that I have made this experiment hundreds of times with both Carlo I. and Carlo II., and among the small proportion of failures they never attempted to bring me any other stone in substitution for that I had thrown. The scent communicated by my hand was almost always sufficient to enable them to pick out that particular pebble from the tens of thousands of closely similar rounded flints lying about.

Those who are acquainted with the delightful suburb of Hampstead will also be familiar with Church Row, at the end of which stands the ivy-clad parish church. Some years

ago, when living within a few steps of the pleasant churchyard, in which I have so often listened to the nightingale, I used to take Carlo I. out at night, pick up a stone, retain it a few seconds in my hand, and throw it over the wall among the tombstones. I then sent him for it; and he would jump the wall, hunt about, and usually retrieve it, though this could have been no easy matter on ground covered closely by graves, many of which were surrounded by low railings. Light could not possibly have aided him here in any way.

In Church Row, too, he helped me to train another retriever to find stones. My plan was first to send the older dog three or four times for the stone while holding the younger one by the collar, to let him understand what was wanted. Then, holding up the older dog, I would throw the stone, at first only a few yards, to encourage the beginner, gradually increasing the distance. Whenever the pupil seemed at all discouraged or disinclined to work perseveringly, letting the older dog go stimulated his faculties