184 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



the world, and is exactly as sure almost surer than any 

 to realize it ; since there is always a greater demand 

 than there is supply ; and since gentlemen, as opposed to 

 dealers, are rarely, if ever, tempted by price to part with 

 animals which suit them. Many sportsmen would regard 

 an offer as an affront, akin to that of proposing to pur- 

 chase his family plate or his family pictures. 



The best rule for teaching a dog to quarter his ground, 

 and, when taught, to keep him at it, will be found in 

 " Dinks on the Dog," as on breaking generally. 



The above precepts for choosing a dog by his action 

 are equally referable to the setter and the pointer, although 

 the latter is something slower, steadier, and closer in his 

 ranging. Otherwise, there is no difference in their style 

 of finding or pointing game. For it is a singular thing 

 that in America, for some reason which I cannot compre- 

 hend or conceive, and for which I never heard so much as 

 a plausible conjecture, the pointer and setter lose the dis- 

 tinctive action whence they derive their distinctive names. 



In England the pointer invariably stands his game, 

 and almost invariably points it, by raising sometimes a 

 fore leg, sometimes a hind leg. 



There the setter, if not invariably, at least nine times 

 out of ten sets his game, falling prostrate as if shot, and 

 lying so close as often to show only the tip of his erected 

 flag above the stubble or turnips. I have often had a 

 brace of setters go down so suddenly, when shooting in 

 high turnips or potatoe ridges, the eye being casually off 

 them at the moment, that it required some trouble to find 

 them. When very close on their game good setters never 



