CHAPTER IV 



ENGLISH SETTER QUESTIONS 



Discussion of the English setter in America 

 would be a history of several volumes if all the 

 records and comments about strains and individ- 

 ual dogs were set forth in a way to satisfy every- 

 body who has taken an interest in the subject. 

 For the purposes of this book it will be enough 

 to briefly review the facts which are so familiar to 

 experts as to have become commonplaces. The 

 chief characteristics of the breed remain as they 

 have been so often described by Stonehenge and 

 other English writers. 



It is color which, to the ordinary eye, differ- 

 entiates the English from the Irish and Gordon 

 setters as well as from a great deal of what has 

 been known as " native stock." There is one and 

 only one fundamental law of color which can be 

 applied without qualification to the English setter. 

 It is that the marking consists of a white ground, 

 upon which may appear small spots or large 

 patches of any of the recognized colors. These 

 are black, lemon, orange, liver, and tan. The 

 solid white or black or liver sometimes appears, 



40 



