102 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



However that may be, there is little question that the 

 Spaniel is one of the immediate ancestors of the dog now 

 known as the Setter. This name was early given to him 

 because he had been trained to crawl cautiously upon the 

 birds, and when he had gotten near enough to locate them, 

 to set or crouch, permitting his owner to draw a net over 

 him, and the birds as well. This was done as early as 1576, 

 when Dr. John Caius wrote, and is clearly described in his 

 book, to which reference has previously been made. 



Gervase Markham, the author of "Hunger's Prevention, 

 or the Art of Fowling," which was published in 1655, under 

 the heading, "What a Setting Dog is," says : 



You shall then understand that a setting dogge is a certain lusty Land 

 Spauiell taught by nature to hunt the partridges before, and. more than any 



other chase whatsoever When he is come even to the very 



place where his prey is, and hath, as it were, his nose over it, so that it seems 

 he may take it up at his owne pleasure, yet is his temperance and obedience so 

 made and framed by arte that presently, even on a sudden, he either stands 

 still or falles downe flatte upon his belly, without daring once to open his 

 mouth, or make any noyse or motion at all, till that his master come unto 

 him, and then proceedes in all things according to his directions and command- 

 ments. 



In further confirmation of the fact that the original 

 Setter was a Spaniel, Mr. Daniel, in his "Rural Sports," 

 has preserved a document, dated in the year 1685, in which 

 one John Harris agrees, for the consideration of ten shillings, 

 to "well and sufficiently mayntayne and keepe a Spanile 

 Bitch named Quand, . . . and fully and effectually 

 traine up and teach the said Bitch to sitt Partridges, Pheas- 

 ants, and other game, as well and exactly as the best sitting 

 Dogges usually sett the same." 



The first recorded importation of the Spanish Pointer 

 (who is fully described in a subsequent chapter) into Great 

 Britain was about the year 1600. At that time, the setting 

 dog, as we have seen, might have belonged to several differ- 

 ent breeds. Shooting with fire-arms came into common 

 practice, among the gentry, about the same period, and 

 seemed to call the Pointer into use as a dog who would 

 indicate the place where the birds lay, while standing erect, 



