DOGS 495 
with more or less intensity under certain conditions, 
as already mentioned. 
The exigencies of the pursuit of different animals 
determines in the main the choice of methods. It is 
quite obvious that a noisy, impetuous method, which 
might be successful in the pursuit of an animal that 
trusts for escape to its wits and legs, would wholly 
fail if employed in the pursuit of an animal which can 
fly swiftly away. If we assume that the point is an in- 
telligent act, useful to the dog in securing a food sup- 
ply, there then is no more difficulty in accounting for 
it than there is in accounting for any other phenomena 
of canine life. Foxes and wolves draw on their prey 
and make the point, which is merely the pause to 
accurately locate the exact position of the prey, pre- 
paratory to the final spring to capture. The feathering 
and bristling of the hair on the back are not exclusive 
traits of bird dogs. All dogs, on the eve of a bloody 
attack, exhibit it. Every one at all familiar with the 
habits of dogs has seen even cur dogs, strangely met, 
draw toward each other with hair bristling, stopping 
betimes in the attitude of a point, all concluding with 
a final rush which may end in battle or friendship, 
accordingly as the principals are fighters or bluffers. 
Cats, in stalking their prey, exhibit many of the char- 
acteristics of drawing and pointing. Whoever has 
seen a setter or pointer make a mighty spring after 
pausing a motnent—that is, pointing—in an effort to 
capture birds, has noted the amazing swiftness of the 
act, and that to make such a supreme effort the dog 
