THE BLACK AND TAN, OR GORDON SETTER. 419 



monly called "Gordon," from the fact that the Dukes of Gordon 

 had long possessed a strain of setters of that color, which had ob- 

 tained a high reputation. * * * But, in spite of successes, it 

 cannot be denied that the general opinion of good sportsmen has 

 not been in favor of the breed since the institution of field trials, 

 in which it has been brought into competition with the English 

 and Irish setter. * * * Among the numberless specimens of 

 the breed (black-tan) which I have seen at work, not one has 

 shown the solicitude to catch the eye of the shooter which is so 

 essential to the perfect correspondence of man and dog which en- 

 sures sport. The pointer or setter ought always to know where 

 his master is, and if put into high covert, such as beans, should 

 raise his head at short intervals above them to ascertain his where- 

 abouts. Now, as far as my experience goes, black-tan setters, and 

 notably the Kents, never do this, and cannot be taken off a scent, 

 without very great severity, till they have satisfied themselves of its 

 fallacy. Most of those tried in the field have been dead slow. On 

 the whole it may be said that the verdict has gone against the 

 breed in England, and as far as I know, no breeder of experience 

 in the south adheres to it, with the exception of Mr. J. H. Salter ; 

 nor is it much more approved of on the moors by the general 

 public. 



The points of the black-tan setter are very nearly the same as 

 those of the English dog, the only deviations being as follows : 



1. The skull is usually a little heavier than that of the English 

 setter, but in other respects it resembles it. 



2. The nose, also, is like the English setter ; but it is usually a 

 trifie wider. 



9. The flag is usually a trifle shorter than that of the English 

 setter, which it otherwise resembles in shape. 



11. The coat is generally harder and coarser than that of the 

 English or Irish setter, occasionally with a strong disposition to 

 curl, as in the celebrated champions, Reuben and Regent. 



12. The color is much insisted on. The black should be rich, 

 without mixture with the tan, and the latter should be a deep ma- 

 hogany red without any tendency to fawn. It is admitted that the 

 original Gordons were often black, tan, and white ; but, as in all 

 our shows the classes are limited to black-tan, the long arguments 



