60 THE DOG IN HEALTH. 



training and selection of the dogs showing it in the 

 highest degree for generations are the means by which so 

 remarkable an instinct has been developed. 



Indeed, the modern pointer and setter are capital ex- 

 amples of the process of " artificial selection," or " the sur- 

 vival of the fittest," or what man conceives to be the 

 fittest. For many years both in Britain and America 

 field trials or public competitions in actual hunting have 

 weeded out the poorer specimens and brought the best to 

 the front, so that breeding from these, dogs of a superior 

 class have been produced. 



While a dog deficient in nose or pointing instinct is 

 useless, of equal or more importance are other qualities, 

 particularly a specialized intelligence of a high order well 

 characterized as " bird-sense " or good judgment in seek- 

 ing for birds where they are m^ost likely to be found, and 

 so deporting himself throughout as to find the birds as soon 

 as his nose, powers of speed, etc., will allow, all being re- 

 lated to economy of energy. But with these qualities of 

 highest importance must be joined docility and tractability, 

 and from the physical side speed and endurance. 



We may say, then, that with the requisite general and 

 special developments of the nervous system, especially of 

 the brain and the sense of smell, there must be that physi- 

 cal form and constitution that enables the dog to move 

 rapidly and to continue long at his work. If he has these 

 qualities, symmetry and beauty are of secondary impor- 

 tance. However, it but rarely happens that the above 

 exist in a high degree without a fair amount of the latter, 

 as the relative proportion of parts must have a great deal 

 to do with both speed and endurance. 



