4 7 2 LETTERS TO YOUNG SHOOTER'S 



LETTER XXXI 

 RETRIEVERS 



WHAT A RETRIEVES SHOULD BE LIKE IN APPEARANCE 

 AND DISPOSITION, AND HOW HE SHOULD BEHAVE 



THERE are certain points by which you may know 

 a useful retriever, I mean one likely to do his work 

 well if properly trained; though to lay down any 

 hard and fast rules as to the appearance of a retriever 

 is out of the question. 



Every dog is called a retriever that can gallop 

 for a half-mile after a wounded hare, whether he is 

 small as a spaniel or big as a calf, his coat black, red, 

 or brown, or of all horrible mixtures black and white, 

 and whether he is rough as a sheep or smooth as a 

 rabbit ; a pure-bred retriever does not exist, for he 

 is a mixture of colley, sheepdog, setter, and New- 

 foundland, with a strain maybe of poodle and Irish 

 water spaniel, the latter being the best cross of all. 



