CLASSIFICATION OP DOGS. 59 



CLASS IV. 



DOMESTICATED DOGS, FINDING THEIR GAME BY SCENT, BUT 

 NOT KILLING IT ; AND USED CHIEFLY IN AID OF THE GUN. 



These include the pointer and the different kinds of 

 setters and spaniels. 



It will greatly facilitate the mastery of the points of 

 these breeds, as well as prepare for a criticism of the 

 adopted standards, if we first consider, according to the 

 principles already laid down, the work or pm-pose for 

 which they are intended. None of these breeds are, as a 

 rule, employed to hunt " fur," hence the fieetness of the 

 greyhound is not required, nor his form or characteristics 

 in a very high degree. They are all employed to discover 

 and indicate the whereabouts of game birds. For this 

 purpose keen scenting powers are the primary requisite, 

 and after that the pointing instinct. This may be re- 

 garded as an example of an acquired instinct ; for, although 

 all breeds of dogs and all the wild congeners of the dog 

 tend to stop when prey is discovered, and in certain cases 

 to steal upon it by cautious advances, in none of them has 

 the actual rigid or cataleptic condition of the muscles been 

 developed, at all events in any high degree. There is in 

 all of these groups of animals the fundamental instinct or 

 tendency out of which such a remarkable condition of the 

 nervous and muscular system has been evolved, and which 

 is now termed " pointing." 



Dogs have been known to remain in this condition 

 (" on point ") for many hours, showing that it is not an 

 act of will or a mere taught habit ; though of course the 



