WHO'S WHO IN BIRD DOGS 39 



average sportsman who does not specialise in dog 

 breeding, yet o^ms a few trusty canine hunting 

 companions, the problem of how to breed his bitch 

 and where to send her is quite difficult to solve. 

 The sportsman's interests centre around his guns, 

 rods, canoes, outdoor gear, boats, dogs — every- 

 thing in the wide world of the great outdoors, and 

 he must know a little about each without specialis- 

 ing particularly on anything. To learn where to 

 breed his dog he refers to the dog books in his 

 library, but, while these are full of the names of 

 champions of yesterday, and lay down the pedi- 

 gree lines of all the well-known dog strains, vir- 

 tually every dog mentioned in the book turns out 

 to be either dead or retired, or, if still in the stud, 

 too old to produce really good pups. Even the 

 stud advertisements of the present-day papers are 

 practically Greek to the average sportsman; the 

 names mean nothing to him beyond that the dog is 

 evidently famous, though of what family he comes 

 is a sealed book to the sportsman, though plain as 

 daylight to the breeder. 



Again, it depends upon what you want the dog 

 for, if an intelligent selection of a sire is to be 

 made. To send your grouse and woodcock bitch 

 to a champion field trial sire, bred for speed and 

 quail in the open, is to invite trouble, for the re- 



