CHAPTER XIV 

 The Cocker Spaniel 



T the head of all varieties of spaniels in America, so far as 

 popularity is concerned, stands the bright, attractive cocker 

 spaniel. His admirers are far too numerous to admit of 

 our considering the cocker as entirely used for field sports, 

 for not one in ten, we may say one in fifty, of the owners of 

 cocker spaniels is a shooting man or uses the spaniel in its special line as 

 a field dog. The cocker is the smallest of the four "Er's" of gun sports, 

 the pointer, setter, springer, cocker, being the order in the way of size. In 

 old books we come across the name in its variety of cocking spaniel, the 

 derivation being the use the small spaniel was put to. We are inclined 

 to the opinion that the term cocker had originally little reference to size, 

 although the smaller dogs were more likely to be kept for cock shooting, 

 from which use the name arose. In books issued since 1775 the terms 

 springer, springing spaniel, cocker, cocking spaniel and cock flusher seem 

 to have been applied to spaniels of all sizes. The first attempt at classifying 

 spaniels that we have found is in Thorburn's "Shooting Director}^," issued 

 just one hundred years ago. The editor gives credit to a Mr. Charles 

 Street for the information that "the following kinds were made use of 

 formerly: the springing, hawking spaniel or starter, and the cocker or 

 cocking spaniel. The first was used for springing the game when falconry 

 was amongst the prevalent sports; but the discovery of the gun superseding 

 the falcon, the powers of the dog were directed to the new acquisition. 

 Some of the true springers still remain about London, but rarely elsewhere. 

 These are little difi^erent from the larger spaniel or setter, except in size. 

 Generally red or red and white, thinly formed, ears short, long limbed, 

 coat waving and silky, tail bushy and seldom cut. Differing from this is 

 the cocker, esteemed for its compact form. The coat is more inclined to 

 curl than the springer's, and the tail is commonly truncated. The colours 

 are liver and white, red, red and white, black and white, all liver, and some- 

 times black with tanned legs and muzzle." Thorburn held that the cocker 



247 



