The Irish Setter 187 



in July last (1904) of carrying the camera to get a snapshot. Nevertheless 

 we did so and within fifteen minutes' walk of Hackensack the brace of Irish 

 setters pointed a half-fledged trio of woodcock in a swampy hollow. These we 

 carried out to the sunlight and having taken snapshots of them, returned them 

 to their nesting ground. These dogs seem to have no lack of point, but per- 

 haps it is the way they are educated. Mr. Clements dwells on this part of 

 the dog's work, and to make up for the scarcity of game in his neighbour- 

 hood his dogs are made to point the dead bird. "Where there is so little 

 pointing you have to give them all you can," is the way he puts it. "So 

 far as my experience goes," Mr. Clements says, "and I have owned a good 

 many English setters and also a few pointers, besides the Irish setters, I 

 find the Irish no harder to handle. Mine are from parents that have been 

 worked for several generations, all good field dogs and given plenty of work, 

 and I think that in such a case you can look for quick development. Some 

 of the English setters I have owned were from field-trials-winning parents, 

 but I have only had one that I liked as well as my Irish. That was my 

 old dog Indicator, by Buckellew out of Lady May. I aim to get a dog 

 that looks well when at work, high-headed, a good ranger and fast, though 

 taught to hunt close and slow when wanted. 



"One of my early Irish dogs was Scamp, who was a son of Glencho, 

 and was whelped as far back as December, 1883. I shot over him next 

 fall, so he did not take long to develop. He was about as easy a dog to train 

 as I ever handled. It took only five days to make him a perfect retriever 

 of live or dead birds from land or water. He seemed to be equally good 

 on woodcock, snipe, grouse or quail, and I refused ;^250 for him. I had 

 another good dog in Lance. I thought him good looking enough to enter 

 at New York show and he did fairly well. There was no end of point in 

 him and he retrieved exceedingly well. I will give you some of my diary 

 entries about Lance: July i, 1885, at Lodi, N. J., on woodcock, began 

 with a flush and then scored nine points without a mistake. Some time 

 later I took him to Catasauqua, for quail, and out of forty points one was 

 false and twice he flushed. Here is another day on woodcock, some years 

 later: July i, 1889, between Woodridge and Hackensack, made twenty- 

 two points on woodcock. One of the cock he flushed twice. He was 

 hunted nineteen days out of twenty-one at White Creek, Washington 

 County, N. Y., and was fresh and strong every day of the entire time. He 

 would do a peculiar thing if he was on a point and could not see me or I 



