DOGS 97 



out of sight behind butts, stone wall, hedgerow or screen 

 of some sort. Here, naturally, the only useful office of a 

 dog is to pick up dead or wounded game, so that in this 

 particular form of sport Pointers and Setters are less than 

 ever before required. 



Wherever dogs are used for finding game and con- 

 siderable tracts of ground have to be covered in pursuit 

 of grouse, partridge, or snipe, either Pointer or Setter is 

 likely to prove of greatest service to a party of gunners. 

 For use on the grouse-moors the Setter is in some 

 respects to be preferred to the Pointer. Setters fre- 

 quently display greater activity and endurance than do 

 Pointers, especially on the rougher, wetter ground of 

 some western and northern moors, and so enable sports- 

 men to cover a fair stretch of ground in a day and with 

 fewer relays of dogs. Another cause for the preference 

 displayed for the Setter for the purpose of grouse- 

 shooting, arises from the fact that the Pointer is sooner 

 incapacitated when traversing rough heather. Unless 

 quite exceptional care has been taken to insure a due 

 hardening of their feet by exercise prior to the shooting 

 season, Pointers soon become footsore when ranging over 

 the coarse dry stalks of the old heather, their feet not 

 having so much protecting hair upon them as have those 

 of the Setter. On the other hand, in the hottest weather 

 and on the driest moors, Pointers that are thoroughly fit 

 and hardened by previous exercise, may frequently out- 

 stay the Setter, from the fact of the latter being the 

 heavier coated, and so feeling the heat and the need for 

 water more than do the Pointers. 



The Pointers of these times are considerably altered 

 in form and character from the Pointers of three or four 

 generations ago. George Stubbs, who may be regarded 



