After a life — time's experience with dogs of all kinds, in all kinds of field work, at all seasons of the year and under every possible con dition, I feel competent to claim a knowledge of dogs, birds, guns and game, that will be valuable as well as interesting to the reader. I have hunted for nearly forty years, from the time when I helped my father furnish game for the people crossing the plains and journey ing to the unopened West, to the present day, and whether in the Mid dle States, on the western plains, or away down South, the pleasure and charm of? The free, open air life has never been lost.