56 KRIDER'S SPORTING ANECDOTES. 



rience, it really seems invidious to institute a 

 comparison. If required, however, to pronounce 

 an opinion, we confess a slight preference for the 

 pointer. 



Our partiality is grounded solely on his supe- 

 rior steadiness and sagacity in the field, and the 

 faculty which he sometimes displays of winding 

 and leading directly on to snipe, from an asto- 

 nishing distance. 



He is more staunch, and can be more fully de- 

 pended upon at a much earlier age than the set- 

 ter. When, however, a dog of the latter stock 

 has arrived at the age of five or six years, and 

 been regularly hunted every season, especially 

 by one man, and that man a sportsman, he some- 

 times becomes, so to speak, a very Napoleon 

 among snipe dogs. 



All the fine qualities of the two stocks are con- 

 centrated and perfected in him ; but such dogs 

 are extremely rare. They are to be considered 

 as the product of a combination of unusually fine 

 instincts in the brute, brought out, tempered and 

 perfected by the higher intelligence of the man. 



If your dog is experienced and staunch to his 

 point, as, of course, he ought to be, the faster he 

 hunts the better your prospect of finding birds. 

 When he gets in among them, he will then be- 

 come sufficiently steady. 



