488 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



setter, a term which denotes merely a certain line of 

 breeding, of mixed English and Gordon setter blood. 

 This family of setters originated in the '6os of the 

 last century, and was a product of Barclay Field's 

 Duke and Thomas Statter's Rhoebe, or either of them 

 or their progeny crossed on any Laverack setter. The 

 Duke-Rhcebes had a large percentage of Gordon set- 

 ter blood, and so were cross-bred. However, the cross 

 produced some grand working dogs and field-trial win- 

 ners. So great was the success of the Duke-Rhoebes 

 and Duke-Rhcebe-Laveracks in field work and field-trial 

 competition, that the superiority of this family was 

 generally conceded. It was known for a time as "The 

 Field Trial Setter," and was so known when the first 

 importations to this country took place, in 1874. Al- 

 though there are many good native setters, so called, 

 in this country, the Llewellin is far away the most 

 popular with sportsmen. After Mr. Llewellin took up 

 the field-trial setter, and bred it for a short time, it 

 was called the Llewellin setter. 



The Laverack setter was a strain of dogs bred by 

 the late Edward Laverack, who averred that they were 

 descended exclusively from Ponto and Old Moll, pur- 

 chased by him of Rev. A. Harrison in 1825, and sup- 

 posed to have been bred pure during thirty-five years 

 prior to that time. However, the Laverack pedigrees 

 have been subjected to much hostile criticism. There 

 is much good evidence which shows that Laverack in- 

 troduced outside crosses into his kennel, and the pedi- 

 gree table, published in his work, "The Setter," con- 



