ENGLISH SETTERS 



FOR reasons that it is difficult to fully explain, English 

 setters have been subjected to more fluctuations in merit 

 than any other breed. The last decadence undoubtedly set in 

 when the show and field trial sorts first became distinct 

 breeds. The show dogs lost the assurance of constitution 

 which work in the field guarantees, and the field trial dogs 

 lost the breeder's care for external form, which as show dogs 

 their ancestors had received. Moreover, they had no equivalent 

 in England in the form of stamina tests at field trials, and 

 the principal breeders have so many dogs that stamina is of 

 little importance in practice to them, however necessary it is to 

 the maintenance of the vitality of a race of thorough-breds. 



There is evidence of black-white-and-tan setters in a 

 Flemish picture of A. Dtirer, but in England the earliest clear 

 evidence makes the English setter of 1726, or thereabouts, either 

 red-and-white or black-and-tan. From the breeding together 

 of these two colours may now be produced whole-coloured red 

 and whole-coloured black, black-and-white, and black-white-and- 

 tan dogs, and possibly also their various mixtures, such as 

 " ticked " dogs of either colour, but this is doubtful. There have 

 been several strains of liver-and-white setters, quite pure bred 

 as far as anyone knew, but bearing traces of water spaniel 

 character, so that it is probable they were originated by this 

 cross at some remote period. Probably it is possible to originate 

 liver-and-white by crossing black-and-white on lemon-and- 

 white ; but if that is so, this is an original mixture of colouring 

 that is exceedingly unusual, provided there is no reversion to 

 a liver-and-white ancestor. It is unusual for this blend to 



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