FIELD DOGS. 279 



field. If the setter gains any thing in steadi- 

 ness by his relations-hip to the pointer, he loses 

 in beauty, range and dash; while the pointer's 

 style of quartering his ground is often lost in 

 the cross, degenerating into a loping, desultory 

 gallop, like that of a wolf. 



The setter, too, loses much of his symmetry 

 and feathery elegance of form, and the pointer 

 of his clean, thorough-bred air and astute look. 

 Both are less easily subjected to discipline, and 

 less reliable than dogs of pure stock. A pro- 

 pensity to hunt in a line, to rake, and crouch 

 on their game, are also observed in the mixed 

 breed. Besides they are apt to prove wilful 

 and unsteady, especially in company with 

 strange dogs ; you will find them behaving tole- 

 rably well to-day, and as wild as runaway 

 mules to-morrow. 



An acquaintance of ours has now in his pos- 

 session a smooth dog of the mixed breed, whose 

 eccentricities in the field set all calculations on 

 his day's performance at defiance. A wide 

 ranger, he is seen standing snipe at a great dis- 

 tance, sometimes steadily enough, but more fre- 

 quently doing mischief, not by actually driving 

 the game up, but by becoming restless and im- 

 patient on his point, now advancing a length or 



