56 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



In raising the scale of points for a good tail, we seem to 

 have laid the stumbling-block of our present standard; for 

 it does not suit the bad ones. This change has been made 

 deliberately, and the committee in charge is willing to stand 

 or fall thereby. We point to some of our best specimens 

 of the breed to illustrate the necessity of it. At most 

 of our bench shows we find specimens with tails carried 

 either Hound-like over the back, or worse still, hanging New- 

 foundland-fashion, with a great, big hook, carried between 

 the legs. Is not the stern of any bird-dog the very soul of 

 his style ? And it is this very style we need so much more of 

 in our red dogs. Is it possible to call the carriage of a calf 

 a point ? I have seen Irish Setters that none but their owner 

 could tell when they were pointing. We must make sweep- 

 ing reforms in this respect through careful breeding; for it 

 is this very lack of style that condemns the red dog at our 

 field trials, and with perfect justice. A lack of style may do 

 for the pot-hunter arid novice, but to the true sportsman 

 and breeder it is an abomination. We can only improve 

 by knowing where to do it and by acknowledging our 

 defects. 



In color we are ahead of any breed of dogs on this globe; 

 for the rich, dark-mahogany and golden-chestnut coat of 

 our favorites is beauty itself, and it shows the superiority 

 and purity of breeding over that of any other sporting dog 

 known, because the Irish Red is red plenty of it and every 

 time no matter how you breed them. You may get some 

 very green ones, but they will look red nevertheless. I have 

 had no little fun with a friend, a lover of the English Setter, 

 who is a great admirer of the blue-ticked color, arid the 

 owner of as grand a field dog as ever lived, of this color. He 

 wishes to raise some blue-ticked stock, and to do so, has 

 bred his bitch to about all the celebrities of the breed; yet 

 his ardent hopes are not yet gratified, and his bitch throws 

 any color of pups, from to green white, all black, lemon and 

 white, orange, red and white, and what he calls blue, but 

 not the blue he is after. I advised him to try the Red cross, 

 but he is down on any other color than the one he can't get. 



