392 



UPLAND SHOOTING. 



spaniel.* But I discover, on study of old books and old 

 pictures, that these breeds have been separate and distinct 

 in the most ancient times of which we have any record. 

 Science may indeed hold that ages ago they had a 

 common origin, and to a naturalist their resemblances 

 are of interest; but their value to the sportsman depends 

 upon their differences of form and habit, and he is prin- 

 cipally interested in knowing that they have been so 

 long and so entirely distinct that any result of inter- 

 crossing can be easily bred out again. In the year 1700, 



Fig, 7. ENGLISH SETTERS. BY FRANCOIS OESPORTES. 



the fashionable type of English setter was what is shown 

 in the illustration, from a painting by Francois Desportes 

 (Fig. 7). It will be observed that it was then the practice 

 to clip the feather of the tail. The other drawing shows 

 the field-trial type of to-day. Barring the fact that many 

 Laverack and Llewellyn setters have too much occipital 

 protuberance, the legacy, perhaps, of a Gordon or Irish 



*I find it stated in various encyclopedias that the setter results from a 

 cross between the spaniel and the pointer. I think this is completely dis- 

 proved by the fact that in crosses between the setter and the spaniel the 

 setter blood is most prepotent, and stamps itself most strongly on the prog- 

 eny, which would not be the case if the spaniel were the purer breed. 



