62 TRAINING THE HUNTING DOG 



weening belief in the sublimity of man and the spe- 

 cial creation of all the lower animals for his benefit. 



Considering setters and pointers from the same 

 unprejudiced standpoint from which we would con- 

 sider tigers, wild dogs, cats and rats, etc., we observe 

 that they possess the hunting instinct and the knowl- 

 edge of the best manner of hunting, to the end that 

 they may obtain a food supply. In a wild state their 

 existence depends on their ability to pursue and cap- 

 ture. The hunting instinct and the manner of its 

 exercise were no more implanted in the nature of 

 pointers and setters to please or profit a man with a 

 gun than was the like instinct, etc., of their wild con- 

 geners, the wolves, dingoes, etc., implanted for the 

 same purpose. 



Setters and pointers, though their names might 

 seem to indicate otherwise, display no essential dif- 

 ferences in their methods of pursuit and capture, nor 

 in their choice of prey. They delight in hunting rab- 

 bits, squirrels and other small animals, and prefer 

 them to game birds as an object of pursuit. It is not 

 at all a difficult matter to break a dog from hunting 

 birds. Not infrequently the amateur accomplishes 

 this result unintentionally and unexpectedly by pun- 



