Part 14

For breaking a pointer or setter, get a check collar, with a line nearly twenty yards long. Peg the dog down, and give him the word (“Take heed!”) or any other, make him drop, and let him lay a quarter of an hour, walking round, and using the word; afterwards walk up and give him a small piece of cheese. Take the dog upon a slack line, drop him, and act as above every morning for a fortnight, until he perfectly knows the word; then hunt him at first single; when on a strong haunt of birds, use the word, and stop him; reward him as above with a piece of cheese, and so encourage him until he knows his game: serve each dog in the same way for fourteen days; then take two or three dogs upon check collars, peg down one before the other, give the word, and make them back each other four mornings successively; afterwards hunt them together.

To teach pointers or setters to bring their game, get a rabbit’s skin stuffed; begin by throwing it in a room, and let the dog have a small line on his collar; when he takes up the skin, bring him to you with a gentle pull, with the skin in his mouth; encourage him three or four times, and then take the line off; when the dog begins to enjoy it, take a small line and run it through a pulley fixed at the top of a room; tie the rabbit’s skin to one end of the line, keep the other in hand, fire a pistol, and let the skin drop; the dog will soon be fond of the sport, and readily bring every head of game that is shot. Break all the dogs in this way, and then take two or three together into a room, fire the pistol, and order first one, and then another dog, to bring the skin, and they will soon be perfect.

To break a wild spaniel, fasten a wide leather strap, about four feet long, to his collar, with a swivel; this he will tread on, and throw himself over, and will, by that means, soon be checked, and rendered handy and obedient. Spaniels may be taught to bring the game by the same mode of instruction as the pointers or setters; there should, however, be but one spaniel in a team that does this; if more, they will break the game in struggling which shall carry it.

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The keepers in the west of Ireland commonly break their dogs by using a pole of about five feet long perforated with a small bicket, about a foot from the end—to this bicket they affix the _check-collar_, and by pegging the dog down, secure him at his point as long as they please. By reversing the pole when it is necessary to chastise the animal for misconduct, the dog is effectually secured from escape or resistance; and, with this simple apparatus, an Irish breaker will stop the wildest setter, and subdue the most refractory.

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Some sportsmen, however, object to the use of the pole on the score of severity, and allege that timid dogs are frequently blinked by using it. But for a violent setter, nothing will conquer his obstinacy so soon or so effectually as this implement.—_Thornhill, &c._

BREAM, _s._ The name of a fish.

The bream is a well-known fish, and yields good diversion to the angler; it is found in slow running, deep rivers, but is chiefly met with in extensive ponds, where, although it grows tardily, it will attain the weight of three or four pounds (they have been known to weigh eight), and if the water and air suit him, will get very fat: they are great breeders, for it is observed the melter has two melts, and the spawner two large bags of spawn, from which is deposited upwards of 130,000 ova. Very few wish to stock their waters with them, as they increase so rapidly, as to consume all the sweet feed, and starve other fish, and are only fit to be put into ponds as food for pike, perch, &c.

The bream is broad, with a small head, smooth at the top, big eyes, a small leather mouth, no teeth, but a lozenge-like bone to help its grinding; the palate is soft and fleshy, resembling that of the carp; it is covered with curious net-work scales, on which it sometimes has abundance of minute whitish tubercles; has a hog back, of a colour between blue and black; the sides of the largest are yellowish, and the belly, inclining to red, is extremely deep, and thin in proportion to its length; the tail is very large, and something in the form of a crescent.

The flesh is soft and clammy, yet by some reckoned of easy digestion, and of better nourishment than that of a carp; the choice parts are the belly and head; what renders it unpleasant for the table is the multitude of bones, and the best way of preparing him is by pickling it like salmon. The French, however, esteem this fish highly, and proverbially say, “he that hath breams in his pond is able to bid his friend welcome.”

The baits used are the red paste; also paste made of brown bread and honey, gentles, waspings, flag-worms; and they are great lovers of red-worms, especially such as are found at the root of a great dock, and lie wrapt up in a round clue: the common red-worms should be used two small ones at a time. Green flies under water, the grasshopper with the legs cut off in June and July; but the best bait for the full-grown bream is a large red worm without a knot, which is to be found in garden walks or chalky commons after rain; put the worms with moss well washed and picked, and the water squeezed from it, into an earthen pot set dry; change the moss every four days for three weeks; they will then be clear, lively, and at the best.

The following directions have been generally given for taking the bream, and as being also equally certain of tempting that shy fish the carp. The bait to be a large red worm, the rods long; the lines silk, or silk and hair, and the floats, goose or swan quills; a piece of lead of the form of an upright brass weight, with a hole at the top, is to be fastened to the low end of the lines; then fasten the hook-link also to the lead, allowing ten inches or a foot between lead and hook, which should be No. 4: the lead must be sufficiently heavy to sink the float quite level with the surface, and not for the float to bear up the lead, which must lie on the ground; by which means the worm will crawl up and down so far as the lead will allow, which to the fish is a great enticement. The line for two yards at bottom should be of strong round gut, and the link next the hook as small as you dare use, for fear of pike or perch (who will assuredly visit the hooks), and till they are taken, neither carp or bream will come near to bite: this fineness will admit the worm to draw the hook to and fro with less difficulty.

For the ground-bait, get a peck, or peck and a half, according to the greatness of stream and depth of water, of sweet gross ground malt, or unground wheat, which is thought preferable; boil it very little, and strain it through a bag: when cold, at night, cast in two parts of it squeezed hard between the hands, so that it may rest in the precise spot where you mean to angle; and if this be repeated for two or three times, it will more certainly attract the fish. Recollect in a stream, to throw it at least a yard above the place where you mean your hook to be, or the stream will carry it too far down; some sew worms for the fish to feed on, upon a turf of short grass, nearly to cover the turf, which is then fastened to a round board, with a hole through that and the turf, where a cord runs, and is tied to a pole to let down to the bottom. Bream generally choose the broadest and deepest part of a river, and in hot weather are easily seen swimming in shoals; there, or thereabouts, with a clear bottom, take the exact depth, making some mark that shall explain if any rise or fall has taken place in consequence of watermills, &c.

The ground thus baited, the worms and tackling prepared, by three or four in the morning, with great caution approach the place, so as not to be seen by the fish; some of them are frequently at the top of the water, whilst the rest are feeding beneath. Having baited the hook that the worm can move at bottom, cast it, and by drawing it gently to you, let the lead rest about the middle of the ground bait; a second rod should be a yard or two above, and a third a yard or two below it; retire from the water so far as just to perceive the top of the floats; when there is a bite the top of the float will sink suddenly; remain quiet until the line goes clear away, then creep to the water-side, and give as much line as possible; if it be a good carp or bream it will go to the farther side of the river, strike gently, and hold the rod at the proper bend, that it may tire him; for if both pull together, either line, hook, or hold, will break, and the fish will be lost. The bream is strong, and runs hard when first struck; but after two or three turns, he will fall on his side, which enables you easily to land him: the carp is far stronger and more mettlesome than the bream; it is advisable to use a reel upon the rods for carp, barbel, or bream; the length of line kills the fish with ease, and increases the angler’s amusement.

This sport may be continued from four till eight in the morning, and from four until the same hour in the evening. The following morning, for the same hours, your diversion will be perhaps the best; if it is gloomy and windy, they will bite all day long, especially if the water is a little thick after rains; during the time of fishing, and at that of quitting the water, throw in more of the ground-bait. After two or three days, the place should be baited and left quiet; the fish will otherwise get too cunning to touch the hook-bait.

Another mode of catching the bream, is, after plumbing the depth, put one or more shot a foot below the float, to balance it, which is a way to take the shyest fish; the bait a large red-worm, which must be laid in, and let sink very gradually to the ground-bait. When the fish bites, strike gently that very instant.

A third is the running line, with a bullet and hole through it, and a small shot to hinder the bullet falling on the hook; let this run on the bottom with the current into holes, and equally as for the bream, it will be found to answer for all other fish that bite at the bottom.—_Daniel._

BREAST, _s._ The middle part of the human body, between the neck and the belly; the part of a beast that is under the neck, between the fore-legs.

BREATH, _s._ The air drawn in and ejected out of the body; life; respiration.

BREATHE, _v._ To draw in and throw out the air by the lungs; to live; to rest; to take breath.

BREECH, _v._ To fit any thing with a breech, as to breech a gun.

BREED, _v._ To procreate, to generate; to bring up, to take care of. To bring young; to raise a breed.

BREED, _s._ A cast, a kind, a subdivision of species; progeny, offspring; a number produced at once, a hatch.

BREEDER, _s._ One that produces any thing; a female that is prolific; one that takes care to raise a breed.

_Breeding Dogs._—Never breed from an old dog and old bitch; if one party must be aged, it had better be the latter; but age on either side should be avoided if possible.

Winter whelps of all sorts of dogs are best, although the difficulty in rearing the produce and the loss of the use of the bitch for some weeks, are strong reasons against it, in the opinion of many; but the few that survive and are reared, amply recompense these obstacles. At three or four days old, part of the sterns should be twisted off, and the dew claws be cut off with a sharp pair of scissors. Puppies will soon learn to lap milk, which will relieve the mother; at six weeks old they may be separated, and should then be wormed.

The dog, to be complete in his form, should have round small feet, legs strong, straight, and muscular; the shoulders fall properly into the back, not upright; chest let down; loins good; back not too long; elbows play finely in their action, and come well in; thighs and gaskings broad and strong.

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In our selection of parents for multiplying a breed a variety of circumstances should necessarily engage our attention; as, whether we are continuing a race already established, improving a defective one, or altogether forming a new variety. In either case, but particularly in the two latter, one or two propagations are not sufficient to enable us to judge of the merits or demerits of the products: anomalies may occur, monstrosities appear, or dogs may breed _back_. It should likewise be always present to us, that, in despite of all our care, and in face of the most favourable opportunities for selection, still _perfect specimens_ to propagate from are unattainable; and as, therefore, we are necessarily to expect defects, it should be our care to well examine that we do not select our male and female parents with each the same faulty form or property; for, however perfect they may be in other respects, they are, in such a case, totally unfit to breed from together. We may, for instance, suppose an otherwise eligible pair of pointers, of the purest blood, but that each, from early and constant confinement, had contracted long, weak, spreading phalanges or toes, instead of a round, cat-like form of foot. By choosing a mate for each of these whose feet were unusually small, round, and firm, we might remedy this defect, and preserve their excellencies; but it would be only propagating deformity to breed from them together. We can only expect to prove successful in rearing a superior race of any domestic animal, when we make our selection of parents with a careful reference to the merits and defects in each, by balancing the one against the other, and by thus combining their different properties. It is by inattention to these circumstances that so many persons, after giving immense prices for animals of particular stocks, have found themselves foiled in their attempts at rearing any thing beyond mediocrity, which animals, under the judicious management of a Russell, a Coke, or an Ellman, among cattle, or an Orford, a Meynell, a Rivers, or a Topham, among dogs, would have produced unrivalled forms.

_Breeding In-and-In._—Among the practical and systematic breeders of all domestic animals, and among none more than those sportsmen who devote themselves to the improvement of the dog, a great diversity of opinion has always existed on the subject of _consanguineous breeding_, or of that between near relations, characterised by the term _In-and-In_. The conflicting authorities on the subject are numerous, and the testimonies contradictory; and it is more than probable that they will remain so, until a long course of experiment is undertaken by a body or society of scientific and observant breeders on various domestic animals, for the express purpose of arriving at the truth in this particular.

Sir John Sebright says, “a breed cannot be improved, or even continued in the degree of perfection at which it has already arrived, but by breeding from individuals, so selected as to correct each other’s defects, and by a judicious combination of their different properties (a position that I believe will not be denied); it follows that animals must degenerate by being long bred from the same family, without the intermixture of any other blood, or from being what is technically called _bred in-and-in_.”

To Mr. Meynell’s opinion to the contrary, he replies—“Mr. Meynell’s fox-hounds are quoted as an instance of the success of this practice (i. e. _the in-and-in_); but, on speaking to that gentleman upon the subject, I found that he did not attach the meaning that I do to the term in-and-in. He said, that he frequently bred from the father and the daughter, and the mother and the son. This is not what I consider as breeding in-and-in; for the daughter is only half of the same blood as the father, and will probably partake, in a great degree, of the properties of the mother.” Again: “I have tried many experiments by breeding in-and-in upon dogs, fowls, and pigeons; the dogs became, from strong spaniels, weak and diminutive lap-dogs; the fowls became long in the legs, small in the body, and bad breeders.”

Sir W. C——n, in his _Treatise on Greyhounds_, is unfavourable to breeding a kin. He says, “If continued for some litters, a manifest inferiority of size, and a deficiency of bone, will soon be visible, as well as a want of courage and bottom; though the beauty of the form, with the exception of the size, may not be diminished.”—_Blaine._—_Sir John Sebright._

BRENT GOOSE (_Anas Bernicla_, LINN.; _Le Cravant_, BUFF.), _s._

This is of nearly the same shape, but somewhat less than the Bean Goose, from which it differs in the colour of its plumage, being mostly of a uniform brown, the feathers edged with ash; the upper parts, breast and neck, are darker than the belly, which is more mixed and dappled with paler cinereous and gray: the head and upper half of the neck are black, excepting a white patch on each side of the latter, near the throat: the lower part of the back and rump are also black: the tail, quills, and legs dusky: the bill is dark, rather of a narrow shape, and only about an inch and a half long: the irides are light hazel. In the female and the younger birds, the plumage is not so distinctly marked, and the white spots on the sides of the neck are often mixed with dusky; but such varyings are discernible in many other birds, for it seldom happens that two are found exactly alike.

The brent geese, like other species of the same genus, quit the rigours of the north in winter, and spread themselves southward in greater or less numbers, impelled forward, according to the severity of the season, in search of milder climates. They are then met with on the British shores, and spend the winter months in the rivers, lakes, and marshes in the interior parts, feeding mostly upon the roots, and also on the blades of the long course grasses and plants which grow in the water; but, indeed, their varied modes of living, as well as their other habits and propensities, and their migrations, haltings, breeding-places, &c., do not differ materially from those of the other numerous families of the wild geese. Buffon gives a detail of the devastations which they made, in the hard winters of 1740 and 1765, upon the corn-fields on the coasts of Picardy in France, where they appeared in such immense swarms, that the people were literally raised (en masse we suppose) in order to attempt their extirpation, which, however, it seems they could not effect, and a change in the weather only caused these unwelcome visitants to depart.

The brent and the bernacle were formerly, by some ornithologists, looked upon as being of the same species; later observers, however, have decided differently, and they are now classed as distinct kinds.—_Bewick._

BRET, _s._ A fish of the turbot kind.

BREW, _v._ To make liquors by mixing several ingredients; to prepare by mixing things together.

BRIDLE, _s._ The headstall and reins by which a horse is restrained and governed; a restraint, a curb, a check.

BRIDLE, _v._ To guide by a bridle; to restrain, to govern.

BRIDLE-HAND, _s._ The hand which holds the bridle in riding.

BRIERY, _a._ Rough, full of briers.

BRIG, _s._ A square-rigged vessel with two masts.

This class of vessels are generally employed as merchantmen and cruisers; and from their sea-worthy qualities and handy rig, are at once safe and easily worked. Latterly they have been introduced into the Royal Yacht Club; and the proud boast of having built one of the fastest and finest vessels in the world, has been recently achieved by the Earl of Belfast.

The Water Witch is 331 tons measurement, and has more than realised all that a builder could expect. She has, in every trial, proved her superiority; and in all weathers maintained a decided advantage over every antagonist. A letter from the noble owner, elicited by some trifling misstatement, concerning her model, &c., appeared in a late number of the _Sporting Magazine_, and as it is briefly descriptive of this beautiful brig, we have transferred it from the periodical.

“Her stern is upright, and, consequently, not so handsome as if it had more over-hung; but being built for a man-of-war, the intention (which has completely succeeded) was to enable her to run two guns out astern without a platform, which most vessels are obliged to have, and which is exceedingly inconvenient, inasmuch as it takes up a considerable portion of the quarter-deck.

“As regards the quantity of canvas, her sails are the same size as a ten-gun brig; nor has she any advantage in being without fittings below, having all the bulk-heads up (with the exception of the one that ought to divide the captain’s cabin from the gun-room), which was omitted, to make a larger and more airy cabin for my friends.

“Add to this, that she had her full weight of stores, &c., on board, as if provisioned for five months, with eight eighteen-pound carronades, and two long six-pounders, three boats, all spare spars, &c., on deck.

“I have only to add, that to this day she has beaten everything that has ever attempted to sail with her, both large and small; and although His Majesty’s ship Vernon (two thousand two hundred tons) had the advantage in light breezes of her one day, by crossing to windward of her, (after a trial of eight hours) about a cable’s length, she having started half a cable’s length to leeward of the Vernon, I understand she retaliated next day by beating the Vernon (under double-reefed topsails and top-gallant sails and considerable head-sea) two or three miles. I can also state, she never took advantage of any of her opponents in starting; and that I should not have the least objection to change her eighteen-pounders for four and twenty-pounders, and sail any square-rigged vessel (now built) in England for whatever sum they please.”

BRIGANDINE, or BRIGANTINE, _s._ A light vessel, such as has been formerly used by corsairs or pirates. They are still used in the Mediterranean.

BRIGHT, _a._ Shining, glittering, full of light; clear.

BRILLIANT, _a._ Shining, sparkling.

BRIMSTONE, _s._ Sulphur.

BRINDED, _a._ Streaked, tabby.

BRINDLE, _s._ The state of being brinded.

BRINDLED, _a._ Brinded, streaked.

BRINE, _s._ Water impregnated with salt, the sea.

BRISKET, _s._ The breast of an animal.

BRISTLE, _s._ The stiff hair of swine. Hogs’ bristles for fly tying are dyed in the same manner as feathers and wool. They require, however, to be kept longer in the dye-pot.

BRISTLE, _v._ To stand erect as bristles.

BRIT, _s._ The name of a fish.

BROACH, _v._ To spit, to pierce as with a spit; to pierce a vessel in order to draw the liquor.

BROCK, _s._ A badger.

BROCKET, _s._ A red deer, two years old.

BROGUE, _s._ A kind of shoe; a corrupt dialect.

BROIL, _v._ To dress or cook by laying on the coals.

BROKE. Preterimperfect tense of the verb _To break_. Applied to a dog when perfect in field discipline.

BROKEN KNEES, PASTE FOR.

Take pipe-clay and alum in equal parts; powder them, and reduce them in water to the consistency of cream; should the composition become dry, dilute it with water; stronger applications, as red precipitate and burnt alum, are occasionally necessary.

When the wound heals use any ointment coloured with lamp-black.

BRONCHIAL, _a._ Belonging to the throat.

BRONCHOTOMY, _s._ The operation which opens the windpipe by incision, to prevent suffocation.

BRONZE, _s._ Brass; a medal.

BROOD, _v._ To sit on eggs to hatch them; to cover chickens under the wing.

BROOD, _s._ Offspring, progeny; a hatch, the number hatched at once; the act of covering the eggs.

BROOD MARES.