ENGLISH SETTERS 149 



generally full of birds. At last Sable got a point from the 

 top of a " knowie," and with his head so high that it gave the 

 impression that the birds must be a very long way off. In 

 starting to go to him, the author happened to see the grouse in 

 a large pack standing with their necks up on another " knowie," 

 about 400 yards away from the pointing dog. That explained 

 the absence of grouse : they had packed upon a moor where 

 they were supposed never to do so. More with the object of 

 scattering them than expecting to get near enough for a 

 shot, we formed single file, and two guns and a gillie, without 

 going near Sable, started to circle the grouse and get ahead of 

 them, so as to put them between the guns and the dog. 

 Strangely enough, they gradually sank down and hid, and we 

 did get quite close to them, and at the risk of being branded 

 poacher, truth compels the confession that we picked up five 

 brace for our four barrels, and besides, scattered the birds in 

 every direction. Sable never moved until he was wanted to 

 assist in finding the dead birds. Those who do not know what 

 very bad eyes dogs have, might think he had seen the birds, but 

 this was not so. The volume of scent made it recognisable 

 at such a distance, and enabled not a speculative, but a certain, 

 point. The author has many times seen such points obtained 

 at 200 yards at a single brood of grouse, and at more 

 than 100 yards at a pair of partridges. Nothing like this 

 can ever be done by a dog that has not " class " ; but field 

 trials often have been won by dogs of no class. That cannot 

 be helped, but it must always be regretted. The no class 

 sort referred to are meetly called " meat dogs " in America, 

 because sportsmen there think there is no object in using them 

 except the requirements of the " pot." 



Since the above was written, it has become known that, 

 when in America in 1904, the author selected a couple of 

 unbroken puppies of eight and ten months old, of the straight- 

 bred sort, for Captain H. Heywood Lonsdale, and that, in spite 

 of quarantine for six months, which damaged them exceedingly, 

 Scott, a capital breaker, has succeeded in perfecting one of 

 them. This dog is known as Ightfield Rob Roy, and with much 



