246 The Sporting Dog 



the medium-sized brothers became an exception- 

 ally fine bird dog, but gave considerable trouble 

 to the trainer at first by his gun-shyness and tim- 

 idity. The other was rather hard-headed and ob- 

 stinate, but developed into a fast, high-class, and 

 valuable dog. I think that these two drew their 

 best characteristics from their dam, which had a 

 strong inheritance of blood from Bolus's Belton. 

 There are some other notable experiments of 

 inbreeding. One was the mating of Gath, a 

 grandson of Gladstone, with Gem, a daughter of 

 Gladstone. The result was a litter of large, 

 strong and gifted dogs, the leaders of which were 

 Gath's Mark and Gath's Hope. Marse Ben, a 

 large, strong, vigorous dog, of which I have fre- 

 quently spoken in this book, is a result on his 

 dam's side of close inbreeding ; and he has lately 

 been bred back to his dam, giving a litter of 

 puppies not lacking in size or strength. Tony 

 Boy, the finest example among setters of endur- 

 ance at high speed, is close up to Roderigo on 

 both sides. Mr. James Cole of Kansas City bred 

 Lady Cole back to her sire, Cincinnatus's Pride, 

 and got a litter of strong, beautiful puppies. 



These examples are not cited to persuade any- 

 body that inbreeding is a rule to follow for its 

 own sake. Indiscriminately applied, such a rule 

 would be vicious. I mention them to show that 

 there is no law of inheritance under which 



