THE SPRINGER. 



This beautiful little animal, is too well known to need descrip- 

 tion. There is a great variety of this species, all remarkable, 

 however, for their cheerful activity. They are not calculated 

 for an extensive range ; and are therefore of no use either for 

 grouse or partridge shooting: but are very serviceable in strong 

 covers in the pursuit of the pheasant or wood cock, and give no- 

 tice of their approach to the object by a sort of whimper) which 

 increases to a bark as the game springs. They are affectionate 

 and docile, and easily broken or trained : in fact, their whole 

 system of education consists of nothing more than merely to 

 keep them tolerably close to the sportsman ; since, if they are 

 suffered to ramble out of gun-shot, the game rises at too great 

 a distance, the object is thus defeated which they were intended 

 to promote, and a mortification, much better felt than described, 

 must inevitably ensue. They are evidently of the spaniel spe- 

 cies, and frequently called the small land spaniel. Their beauty 

 and affectionate disposition will always excite attention ; but they 

 are, after all, perhaps better calculated for coursing, than the 

 fowling-piece, as they may be usefully employed in driving a 

 hare from a copse or a thicket, while a pointer, or particularly a 

 setter, will answer all the purposes of pheasant and woodcock 

 shooting. However, if sporting on a grand scale, and the ut- 

 most pinnacle of perfection, are the objects to be attained, let 

 relays of dogs be kept for the moors or grouse alone, others for 

 the partridge, and the pheasant and woodcock consigned to the 

 email land spaniel or springer. 



