his favourite receipt, that it would be absurd to enter on the subject; but as so many fail in adapting their sauces to wildfowl, I shall take the liberty of giving one that has been preferred to about fifty others; and was, at one time, not to be got without the fee of a guinea.

RECIPE FOR SAUCE TO WILDFOWL.

Sauce à la Russe* (the older it is the better)

1 glass.

1 table spoonful.

To be scalded, strained, and added to the mere gravy, which comes

from the bird in roasting.

To complete this, the fowl should be cut up in a silver dish, that has a lamp under, while the sauce is simmering with it.

Let a goose, or any strong or fat wildfowl, be roasted with the

addition of a small onion, and a pared lemon, in the inside; as this will draw out the strong fat, and give the bird a milder taste.

Water-birds, in order to be less susceptible of cold, are, by nature, of a warmer temperament than landbirds. This may be proved by cookery: - for instance, a common fowl to be roasted, or boiled, will require three quarters of an hour; whereas a tame duck, of equal size, will be done in half an hour.†

* Introduced by the late Mr. Aveling, in Albemarle Street, and now sold there by his successors.

† Vide an admirable little book on plain cookery, with valuable receipts and good advice on other things, written by Mrs. Childe, in America, and called the "Frugal Housewife," and which every campaigner, or sportsman, should have in his possession.

This is an observation worthy of notice for the naturalist, the sportsman, and the cook.

While on the subject of poultry, I have the kind permission of C. H. Massiah, Esq., whose fowls and ducks surpass all that I ever tasted, to publish his discovery, by which they become far more delicate in flavour, and will keep perfectly good for three or four weeks. It is merely to deprive them of all food, and allow them an abundant supply of clean water, for the last 48 hours before they are killed.

Hares and rabbits, when old, have blunt claws; are broad across the back; their ears are very tough; and when cut, their flesh curls up, and remains dry. The first joint of their foreleg is larger and stiffer than in young ones, and their jawbones are very hard. In young hares and rabbits all is the reverse to this: their ears are easily torn, and their jawbones may be cracked with the forefinger and thumb.

289

DOGS

HAVE been such a universal subject for every sporting writer, that scarcely a word can be said about them, but that of which we may find the counterpart in some publication or other. Every one has his own caprice, or fancy, about pointers, setters, and spaniels; and we meet, almost every day, with some fresh man, who has got the best dog in England.

Let it be observed, however, that, with all the perfection to which we have brought both the breeding and breaking of these animals, we are not always sufficiently particular. In the one, we are apt to let them degenerate for want of a proper cross; and, in the other, we are too well contented (provided they have "plenty of hunt in them ") with their merely being broken well to back and stand, without regarding the importance of their lying down to charge, and being stanch from chasing hares or rabbits. Putting the credit of our dogs entirely out of the question, we forget the number of shots they spring by committing such faults.

If you want game, take old dogs. Young ones, however fleet and well broken, know little more than the A B C of their business, while old ones are up to every kind of trick.

I shall now give engravings, of a check collar, and an iron puzzle, that will, at once, do more towards

U

dog-breaking than a whole treatise, which would be redundant to those of my readers who are sportsmen, and set all the others asleep.

CHECK COLLAR FOR BREAKING POINTERS, &c.

EXPLANATION.

A. Pin which screws out, to let the dog's head in. The rope, on being suddenly pulled, draws the rings into a corner of the triangle; and almost chokes the dog, by the pressure of B. B.

IRON PUZZLE

B

B

for ditto;

to be put on with two leather straps: the hind one to be buckled over the dog's head; and the fore one round his lower jaw; so as for the cross to project under the front of it.

I shall, however, make one observation, which is, that a dog is far more likely to become a first-rate one, by being made a companion of, and corrected by rating and shaming him, than by being kept entirely away from the breaker, except to be taken to the field, and there flogged for every fault he commits. I had a friend in Dorsetshire, who was not only one of the best shots that ever lived, but who had, perhaps, the very best dogs in Europe, and I know this was his plan.

[In the fourth edition, I observed that any one who had been much in the west of England would know who I meant; but I now sincerely regret to add that this gentleman died in 1825. While he lived, the public mention of his name might have been thought a liberty; but now that he is no more, I feel it a duty -a tribute due to his memory. The sportsman alluded to was Bayles Wardell, Esq., who, take him for every thing, was one of the very best shooting sportsmen that ever went into a field! To say of any man that he was the best shot in England, would be as bold an assertion as to say that there was any man in England who could shoot better than Mr. Wardell !]

With regard to spaniels, they are, nine times in ten, so badly broken in, as, in general, to be only fit to drive a large wood; but, if taught to keep always within half a gunshot, they are the best dogs in existence for working among hassocks and briars. They should be trained very young, or they require an unmerciful deal of flogging; and it is sometimes advisable, at first, to hunt them with a forefoot tied up in the collar.