22 THE AMERICAN HUNTING DOG 



pearance, not nearly so much as has the setter. 

 With the introduction of wing shooting with 

 arquebuses and the decline of hawking, the pointer 

 came forward. Hounds of the foxhound size were 

 employed to find single birds, which were then 

 flushed and shot on the wing. The setter was still 

 kept for net service, which was, curiously enough, 

 considered the higher form of sport and the more 

 aristocratic (probably because of the then newness 

 of wing shooting for single birds !). In one of the 

 old books occurs the following odd line: "The 

 setter cannot be degraded into a pointer, but the 

 pointer may be elevated to a setter, though of sec 

 ond class. " This idea probably had its origin in 

 the fact that the pointer could not then be de 

 pended upon to be staunch ; in fact, was required 

 both to find and flush birds, which would never 

 do in a setter, who had to hold his point while the 

 netters went around on the other side of the covey 

 and drew the net, the birds rising away from the 

 dog, and thus flying right into the net. Only the 

 best table birds were selected from a catch, and a 

 balance maintained between cocks and hens caught, 

 the rest being liberated, so the ancient sport of 

 netting quail was not as unsportsmanlike as it 

 looks. Once scattered in thick brush the pointer 

 came into his own, and as soon as wing shooting 



