140 THE COMPLETE SHOT 



occur, because a race of setters has been bred for many years 

 in which more than 99 per cent, of the offspring came one of 

 three colours namely, black-and-white ticked, lemon-and-white 

 ticked, and black -white-and-tan with very few ticks and large 

 patches of colour. The other two colours that have shown 

 themselves, each less than I per cent., have been red and 

 white in large patches a combination of the markings of one, 

 and the colour of another, ancestral race and liver-and-white. 

 But it is possible that these two rare kinds are not blends at 

 all, but only reversions to ancestors more than thirty - five 

 years and ten or twelve generations back. Paper pedigrees 

 can trace the colours and the absence of red markings back 

 much farther than this, but the author is only now discussing 

 what he personally remembers. Probably these are not rever- 

 sions at all, but merely blends of colour and markings. It would 

 possibly be more nearly correct to say that the liver-and-white 

 appears in the race referred to no more often than once in a 

 thousand puppies. If it is a reversion, it shows how very 

 nearly a cross may be bred out ; and if it is a blend, it proves 

 that whatever generation of these black-and-white and lemon- 

 and-white setters are crossed together the offspring continues 

 to come of the three original strains of blood, with little mixture, 

 and very seldom a thorough mixture. 



All the best English setters in the world are descended 

 from Mr. Hackett's Rake, a descendant of Mr. Burdett's black- 

 and-tan Brougham. Rake begat Mr. Statter's Rhcebe, and 

 also Judy, the dam of the Champion Field Trial dog Ranger. 

 These two, Rhcebe and Ranger, founded two distinct families, 

 which for a very long time were not mixed, and in America are 

 still separate, and the former remains uncrossed with American 

 blood. The Ranger blood was principally kept up by Mr. 

 James Bishop of Wellington, Salop, and by Mr. Elias Bishop 

 also. 



The Rhoebe blood came into note when this celebrated 

 brood bitch was crossed with Duke, a dog bred from a Netherby 

 dog, and a Staffordshire bred bitch, belonging to the late Sir 

 Vincent Corbet. Amongst many good offspring, Rhcebe had 



