SHOOTING SETTEES. 57 



though well known to the ornithologist, can be in- 

 cluded in the sportsman's list of game. The par- 

 tridge of Virginia is the quail of New York, commonly 

 known as the Perdix Virginiana, though of late there 

 has heen a stiff controversy as to his name and genus. 

 It is proved, I believe, beyond cavil, that he is not 

 exactly a quail, nor a partridge either, but a sort of 

 half-way link between them : the modern naturalists 

 call him an ortyx, a very silly name, by the way, since 

 it is only the Greek for quail, to which he is, in truth, 

 the more nearly connected. His habits are far more 

 like those of the quail than of the partridge, and he 

 should be called quail in the vernacular." 



SETTERS. 



HAVING now disposed of that which, by a slight licence, 

 may be termed the poetry of shooting, before entering 

 upon its more household stuff, allusion comes in aptly 

 to its intellectual agents. Although, as a principle, 

 we have recommended the use of the pointer, in 

 especial to the young disciple of the trigger, the first 

 place among shooting dogs must be awarded to the 

 Setter. In style and dash of ranging; in courage 

 and capacity of covering ground; in beauty of form 



