[ "Saron" / Autobiography of a Pheasant ]
I have been able to find out nothing about the writer who used this pseudonym. This novel was serialized in Sporting Magazine in 1850.
Chapter 2 (November, 1850) makes a couple of references to a Newfoundland dog being involved in pheasant hunting. One of the main characters, the foppish and foolish Major Skittowe, sets out on hunt with his Newfoundland:
Neptune . . . was a poor lanky specimen of the mongrel Newfoundland dog, strongly addicted to hunting; despite of his name, very averse to the water; and with a mouth like a vice, that demolished every thing that came within its reach. Still he was an old favourite with the Major and his gallant corps, lived in the barrack yard, was made much of by the men, and marched with the regiment upon all occasions. The party now proceeded into the covert, where they formed into line; the two Lieutenants taking the flanks; the Major, attended by his servant and Neptune, in the centre. (316 - 317)
Nep is used to retrieve the remains of a rabbit "absolutely blown to pieces" by the Major's clumsy shooting, and then gets inadvertently involved in an accident. When the hunters think they've spotted a pheasant (the "narrator" of the "autobiography") Neptune is tied to a tree, with the following consequences:
The Newfoundland dog was trying to extricate himself from his bondage, when the gallant sportsman wishing to make "assurance doubly sure," took a step to the front, came in contact with Neptune’s chain, tumbled over it, and in his fear and fall, accidentally pulled both triggers, lodged the contents of the two barrels in the trunk of the beech-tree, and that portion of Sim’s right leg which happened to obtrude itself from behind it. (319)
The wounded man, Sims (the Major's personal assistant) is taken off to be treated and the hunt ends when the Major finally shoots a pheasant — a wooden one used to deceive poachers.