62 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



distinctive color of the Irish Red Setter. Many Irish fam- 

 ilies were celebrated for rare strains of the breed among 

 them the 0' Conner, or La Touche, the De Freyne, or French 

 Park, the Lord Dillons, Waterford, and Lismore; the latter 

 the head of the O 1 Callaghan family. 



" But where are all these kennels now? Echo answers 

 where? Owing to the ruinous prodigality and thriftless 

 extravagance of the Irish squires of the past century, as 

 well as the successive convulsions which have rent unhappy 

 Ireland, its noble race of Setters has been scattered to the 

 winds neglected and uncared for; and at this moment, I 

 know of no kennel of the pure race in the country. Shows 

 have done little, if anything, to improve the breed. The 

 quantity has increased, but not the quality. The true type 

 is lost sight of, because the breed is not kept up by practical 

 sportsmen, or even by men who can lay the slightest claim 

 to a correct knowledge of the breed, but by those whose 

 only aim is to make money. The consequence of this is 

 that our shows are full of snipy, weedy mongrels, which, 

 save in color, and that only sometimes, are as unlike the 

 wiry, racy, blood-like Irishmen as they well can be. 



"It is to this fact, too, that we must attribute the bad 

 name given to Irish Setters as being headstrong and 

 difficult to train. How can it be otherwise? Show animals 

 bred anyhow, and from untrained parents, are foisted on 

 the public. If the setting instinct be undeveloped from 

 generation to generation, reversion to type will be the con- 

 sequence, and in each successive generation it will become 

 beautifully less. I notice in America the same state of 

 things goes on. While large sums of money are expended 

 in purchasing the best types of English Setters, from the 

 best breeders, Irish Setters, so-called, are purchased hap- 

 hazard, from what I call mushroom breeders, because 

 they are cheap. And thus a race of Setters is perpetuated 

 which are a libel on the breed, and so widely different from 

 the true type as the north is from the south. 



" What else can one expect from promiscuous and inju- 

 dicious crossing? How is this state of things to be remedied? 



