FIELD DOGS. 281 



fully recommend our readers, as a rule, never 

 to purchase a dog of mixed stock. The diffi- 

 culty of breaking him, united with his natural 

 wilfulness, which is never entirely subdued, 

 is one 'main reason why so many inferior dogs 

 are forced into the field. We should, always 

 remember that the nearer the animal approaches 

 to purity of blood, the nobler are its attributes. 

 The apprehension and instincts of the latter are 

 more clearly defined, and of a higher order than 

 those of the commingled breed, in which the 

 qualities of the thorough-bred pointer and setter 

 seem to be partly obliterated and partly con- 

 founded together, so to speak, in a very uncompro- 

 mising and unsatisfactory degree. But on this 

 head we have said enough for the present, and 

 with a few words on the rearing of the young 

 pointer and setter shall conclude. 



Having procured a healthy puppy of either 

 stock as pure as can be obtained, send him by 

 all means to the country until he has attained 

 his majority, if the thing can be done with any 

 degree of convenience. The advantage in this 

 is manifested in the growth and good looks of 

 the animal, and his almost total exemption from 

 disease. A puppy, which is allowed to run in 

 the fields once or twice a day, to empty himself, 



