21 6 The Sporting Dog 



est indecision after the first moment of doubt, 

 he marched thirty or forty feet and stiffened to 

 a stanch point on a large bevy of birds. Some- 

 body will say that any dog would do that. I say 

 that any dog which did it would be a high-class 

 dog. In the first place, there was the speed at 

 which the whole performance was acted ; in the 

 second place, there was the instinct by which he 

 chose the ravine as the place most likely to harbor 

 birds ; in the third place, there was the bird sense 

 with which he skirted the ravine instead of wast- 

 ing time in searching out particular spots ; in the 

 fourth place, was the instantaneousness with which 

 his nose told him of the scent of birds ; in the 

 fifth place, was the quickness with which he rec- 

 ognized that he had felt only the scent of where 

 birds had been ; and, in the sixth place, was the 

 positiveness with which he went straight on body 

 scent to where the birds were. The other dog 

 was a much more than ordinary animal and a few 

 minutes later might have done exactly what Boy 

 did. But the fact remains that he did not do 

 it, and that the coming champion, with equal 

 chances, beat him in the whole series of acts lead- 

 ing to the location of a bevy. 



One of the best exhibitions of class shining 

 through disadvantages was that of the Llewellin 

 setter, Joe Gumming, when he won his champion- 

 ship. This performance brings up a story which 



