498 DOG-BREAKING. 



singular accomplishment of steadily pointing all game 

 that lay well, and of not rushing in until the sportsman 

 had come close to him. But this is a case of high break- 

 ing more curious than useful, for spaniels are essentially 

 springers, not pointers, and the little animal must fre- 

 quently have been lost sight of in cover. Our grand- 

 fathers used to apply the term springers solely to large 

 spaniels never to the Duke of Marlborough's small 

 breed, which was greatly prized. 



65. A dog is generally most attached to that descrip- 

 tion of sport, and soonest recognises the scent of that 

 game, to which he has principally been accustomed in 

 youth. He will through life hunt most diligently where 

 he first had the delight of often finding. The utility 

 therefore is obvious of introducing spaniels at an early 

 age to close covers and hedge-rows, and setters and 

 pointers to heather and stubble. 



66. In spaniels, feathered sterns and long ears are 

 much admired, but obviously the latter must suffer in 

 thick underwood. The chief requisite in all kinds of 

 spaniels, is, that they be good finders, and have noses so 

 true that they will never overrun a scent. Should they 

 do so when footing an old cock* pheasant, the chances 



* The only bird which we have in America, at all analogous in 

 habit to the pheasant, though totally different in species and ap- 

 pearance, is the Ruffed Grouse, erroneously called Pheasant in the 

 South, and Partridge in the Eastern States. It is, however, for cock 

 and quail shooting in covert, that the Spaniel would be of such in- 

 estimable service to sportsmen in North America. H. "W. H. 



