316 FRANK FORESTER S FIELD SPORTS. 



improved forai, for much above a hundred years. He was 

 known originally as the Spanish Pointer, and was probably first 

 reared in that country, to which his peculiar capacity for endu- 

 ring heat and the want of water singularly adapts him. 



It appears probable that he is an improved or altered form 

 of the Foxhound, bred and trained to stand instead of chasing 

 his game, and to repress his cry ; and it is generally supposed 

 that this was effected and his present type obtained by crossing 

 the Foxhound with the Spaniel. I cannot say that I believe 

 this to be the case, as I cannot see by what analogy the crossing 

 a feather-sterned dog, such as the Hound, with one entirely rough 

 and silky-haired, like the Spaniel, should result in the produc- 

 tion of d race, the characteristic of which is the closest and most 

 satin-like of coats, and the whip-like tail of a rat. I am inclined 

 myself to believe that the original stock is from the Foxhound, 

 and smootli-haired Danish or Pomeranian dog, crossed perhaps 

 again with Spaniel, but so slightly as to show few of its charac- 

 teristic points. The Pointer being, as I have said, originally a 

 cross-bred dog, sportsmen continued to mix his blood occasi- 

 onally to obtain different qualities, to a late period, and even now 

 Foxhound blood is occasionally added, in order to give dash 

 and courage. I should not be sui-prised to find that a cross of 

 the Bull-dog had been introduced, as it was advantageously 

 into the Greyhound by Lord Orford, though I have found no 

 mention of the fact — but the type of the animal is now firmly 

 established, and the finest breed reproduces itself in its finest 

 strain, if purely bred. 



The cross breeding, which I have named, has never been 

 allowed with regard to the Setter, however, except by some 

 ignorant or prejudiced keeper, or some person desirous of pre- 

 serving, by this unnatural union, some qualities of a favorite 

 individual of either strain. In any well-kept kennels a chance 

 litter from a Setter bitch by a Pointer dog, or vice versa, would 

 undoubtedly be condemned to the horse-pond, and with Irish 

 sportsmen, who are very choice of their Setters, a cross even 

 with the English Setter would be regarded as a blemish. 



