170 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 



dray-horse, have desired the breeder to cross a jenny ass 

 with an elephant to give size, and then to recross the pro- 

 geny with a bear in order to gain courage and a hairy coat. 



The truth, and it is now generally admitted certainly 

 admitted by all physiologists and natural historians is, that 

 except the spaniel, the setter is the oldest and purest of 

 all the sporting breeds. In fact it is, itself, neither more 

 nor less than a spaniel of the largest size, cultivated by 

 the selection of the best types for parents, by superior 

 food, good housing, and judicious crossing, not with dif- 

 erent varieties of the dog, but with various families of its 

 own distinct variety, until it has been brought nearly to 

 perfection. 



The habit of setting or pointing its game, which is now 

 an instinctive and natural qualification of its race, was 

 originally an acquired trick, taught by diligent breaking. 

 Centuries of tuition have rendered that acquired trick an 

 hereditary gift, so much so, that no good judge of animals 

 would now think a young setter worthy of being put into 

 the breaker's hands, if he did not point naturally and 

 without instruction. 



This conversion of foreign and acquired tricks into 

 hereditary and congenital powers, transmitted from sire to 

 son, is extraordinary ; but this is by no means its most 

 extraordinary phase. Every sportsman, who has kept and 

 reared families of pointer puppies in which variety, as I 

 have said before, this retention of acquired habits is even 

 more common than in the setter must often have observed 

 the whelps, under four months of age, when no instruction 

 has ever been given them, nor have they acquired any 



