MR. LORT ON THE RUSSIAN SETTER. 375 



promise that I would reserve a pair of Russian puppies for him. . . . Since then I have 

 hunted them in company of several dogs of high character, but nothing that I have yet seen 

 could equal them. If not taken out for six months they are perfectly steady, which is a 

 quality rarely to be met with. ... I contend that for all kinds of shooting there is 

 nothing equal to the Russian, or half-bred Russian Setter, in nose, sagacity, and every other 

 necessary qualification that a dog ought to possess." 



Mr. William Lort, to whom we applied for information concerning the breed, writes in 

 reply about the Russian Setter : 



"Roughly speaking, in appearance this dog is rather like a big 'warm' Bedlington 

 Terrier. There are two varieties of the breed, and curiously enough they are distinguished 

 from each other by the difference, in their colour. The dark-coloured ones are deep liver 

 and are curly-coated. The light-coloured ones are fawn, with sometimes white toes and 

 white on chest ; sometimes the white extends to a collar on the neck. These latter are 

 straight-coated, not curly like the dark ones. My recollection of this breed extends back 

 some fifty years, and the last specimen I owned of it a light-coloured one I gave away 

 to a friend who would not take a hundred pounds for it. 



" Their noses never seem to be affected by a change of climate ; hence their value in 

 my eyes. I have worked them in September's sun and in January's snow, and they were 

 equally good. They were some of the best dogs I ever had, and never varied ; and under 

 exceptional cases as regards the weather, we always had the Russians out. The only fault 

 I found with them was the difficulty in getting new blood, for those we had showed 

 evidences of scientific breeding, and a strict adherence to type. The fact that they were 

 successfully crossed, to my knowledge, with English Setters, satisfies me that they are really 

 Setters and not an allied breed. I may add that they are excellent water-dogs." 



When a breed is so highly recommended by such sportsmen as the above, it seems mar- 

 vellous that it has not been encouraged in a country like our own, which has been the nursery 

 of sport for years. We cannot, therefore, express too strongly our conviction that the intro- 

 duction of a dip of Russian blood would improve the working capacities of our English 

 Setters. At all events, the experiment is well worth repeating, and we trust that Mr. Lort, 

 or some other gentleman equally looked up to in the canine world, will set the example, 

 and try to still further improve our breed of Setters. Unquestionably, the appearance of 

 our dogs would suffer at first, but few sportsmen would regret the loss of good looks if an 

 increase of working capacity was gained. 



A scale of points is quite out of the question in treating of a breed of which so very little 

 is known, and for a description of the Russian Setter we must take refuge under the aegis 

 of Mr. William Lort. 



