490 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 
the Irish setter color, to conform to the standard, 
should be a deep red, or, as the Irish Setter Club of 
England has it, “a rich golden chestnut,” in ancient 
times the color was red and white, and the red then 
was not so deep and rich in color. The insistence on 
color is a bench show qualification. However, a trifle 
of white on toes, forehead, chest or face is not a dis- 
qualification. In English field trials and field work 
the Irish setter has succeeded far better than he has 
in the same line of effort in this country, though this 
applies to his status of some years ago. The Irish set- 
ter is but little used by American sportsmen, and in 
field-trial competition is rarely seen. 
The latter-day Irish setter seems to be lacking in 
speed, range, endurance and general capabilities, as 
compared with his more popular congeners, the pointer 
and English setter. Physically, like the English set- 
ter, which, in the main, he resembles closely, he is the 
embodiment of grace and beauty. 
Many things point to the conclusion that the black 
and tan, or Gordon setter, is of comparatively recent 
origin. Ancient writers are silent concerning him, 
which would indicate that he was unknown to them. 
No one knows where the Duke of Gordon obtained his 
dogs. It is supposed that this breed is a composite 
of setter, collie and bloodhound, the latter showing 
strongly in the generous dewlap, the coarser skeleton, 
the larger, heavier head, the haw, and the tendency, 
when at work, to use on the trail the methods of a 
hound rather than those of the setter. The collie cross 
