FOR THE FIELD AND FIELD TRIALS. 57 



which enable him to catch the swiftest hares or 

 wolves, etc., in a short pursuit. 



Setters and pointers are particularly prized by man 

 for their natural impulse to hunt game birds, and 

 the natural methods they employ in their efforts to 

 capture them, for it so happens that the methods em- 

 ployed by the dog for himself are equally useful to 

 man when employed in his service. As setters and 

 pointers are naturally of an amiable and deferential 

 nature, diverting their efforts to the purposes of the 

 gun is not a task of great difficulty. 



The contention made herein that pointing is im- 

 planted in the dog by Nature for his own benefit, and 

 that it is but one detail of many others in the exercise 

 of his instinctive efforts to obtain a food supply, is 

 opposed to some exceedingly venerable teachings on 

 this subject. That the reader may have a better 

 understanding of the ancient speculation concerning 

 the origin of the act of pointing, and at the same 

 time the exalted importance of man, as determined 

 by himself, the following excerpt is quoted from 

 Stonehenge, whom the public, in his day and for 

 some years afterward, accepted as an authority on 

 this point: 



