14 GUNS AND DOGS 



seen better and the rate at which it is moving is more 

 rapidly estimated. 



I shall have something more to say about guns and 

 loads in connection with the various birds in the 

 proper place. 



The dogs used in upland shooting in the United 

 States are usually the pointers or setters. Small span- 

 iels are used to some extent for cock-shooting, but not 

 so much as in England. The setter and the pointer 

 are both excellent dogs. The " pointer-man" insists 

 that the pointer is the only dog. The " setter-man " 

 usually will have onl}^ setters. I have shot over both 

 dogs, in many fields. The setters, with their silky 

 coats, feathered legs and tails, to my eye, are the hand- 

 somer dogs. I know of no more beautiful animal in all 

 the kingdom, than a well-marked English setter. The 

 long hair, I admit, collects the burrs, and the dog is 

 often badly used up by them, while but few, if any, 

 stick to the pointer. The pointer will go farther in 

 warm weather, and without water, and he is an excel- 

 lent dog for the prairie. The setter is the better dog 

 in cold weather, since the pointer shivers whenever 

 he is at rest and it makes one cold to look at him. 



Pointers are by some regarded as slower dogs, but 

 the modern pointer of field-trial stock, will go like a 

 greyhound, and is fast enough in any field. I have 

 seen them keep the setters busy on the vast Western 

 prairies. 



There is much talk, now that field-trials are held 

 annually in all sections of the country, about the com- 

 parative merits of "field-trial dogs" and "shooting- 



