After all, the truest test of excellence is finding birds for the guns, 

 a feat in which the flashy worker is not always proficient. 



In the innumerable letters which have appeared upon the 

 subject I have never seen reference to the remarks of General 

 Hutchinson. Possibly they have been quoted and escaped my 

 observation. This gentleman, who is very rightly regarded as a 

 sound authority, laid stress upon a sporting dog having small, round, 

 hard feet, which he held to be a more certain test of endurance 

 than any other point. " Rest assured, that the worst loined dogs 

 with good feet are capable of more fatigue in stubble or heather 

 than the most muscular and best loined, with fleshy ' under- 

 standings.' The most enduring pointers I have ever seen hunted 

 had more or less of the strain of the foxhound ; but doubtless they 

 were proportionately hard to break." 



A variety of Pointer not much seen now-a-days is the black, 

 or Scottish, which, of course, is free from any imputations as to the 

 purity of his lineage. He is said to be all that one could wish. 



