SPECIAL FIELD DOGS 69 



French claim that their sporting dog is the best 

 all-around field dog in the world, since he is as 

 good a pointer and bird-finder as he is a retriever 

 (and we all know how lots of the finding of 

 grassed birds is often left to ns by our crack 

 pointers and setters), and his double coat makes 

 him impervious to cold in swimming after ducks. 

 It will probably take several generations of Amer- 

 ican breeding to develop in the French dog the 

 combined speed and nose required of a field trial 

 winner, but the fancy in this country is in good 

 hands, notably Mr. L. A. Thebaud. The Griffon 

 is not a handsome dog, compared to either pointer 

 or setter. His head is heavy and square-lined, 

 his coat is wire-haired and grey with black spots, 

 and in general he looks like a cross between the 

 Airedale and a blue belton setter. His tail is 

 always docked for the same reason in looks that 

 a terrier's tail is docked. The wire-haired coat 

 is, like that of the Airedale, double, with a vest 

 of fine downy hair underneath, making the dog 

 able to plunge into icy water after ducks like a 

 Chesapeake, and enabling him to withstand the 

 rough going in briers and wet underbrush that 

 would soon put either setter or pointer to shiv- 

 ering and flinching. Mr. Thebaud, who spent 

 much of his time in France hunting with the 



