THE FIELD SPANIEL. Ill 



except that I have ascertained on good evidence that in private he 

 has been tried to be first class. In color he is of a beautiful rich 

 red with scarcely any white ; while he possesses a frame of great 

 size, symmetry, and substance, with good legs and feet. 



THE FIELD SPANIEL. 



The field Spaniel is distinguished from the toy dog by his propen- 

 sity to hunt game, and by his size and strength, which are suffi- 

 cient to enable him to stand the work which is required in making 

 his way through the briars and thorns of a thick covert, where he 

 is chiefly employed. Although not used for water, where the 

 water spaniel is pre-eminent, his coat must be of such a thick 

 nature as to bear long continued wet, inasmuch as he is generally 

 soaked with it, either from the snow on the briars, or from mois- 

 ture hanging to them in drops, caused either by rain or dew. Har- 

 dihood, therefore, is essential, and though a little dog may possess 

 it, there are few instances of anything under 12 or 14 pounds being 

 able to stand the wet and labor of a day's covert shooting. The 

 nose of the spaniel must be exquisite, or he will be unfit to per- 

 form his duties, which require him to follow out the pheasant, 

 woodcock, or hare, to the well-concealed retreat in or under a thick 

 bush, which either of them may have chosen. A good and some- 

 what musical tongue was, by the old school of sportsmen, consid- 

 ered a desideratum, in order not only to give notice that the dog is 

 on game, but also the particular kind which he is " questing," and 

 which many good spaniels enable their masters to distinguish by a 

 variation in their notes. Formerly this was thought so important, 

 that if a spaniel happened to be mute, he was hunted with a bell 

 round his neck, as is sometimes done with the setter when used in 

 covert. In the present day, a very fashionable breed (the Clumber) 

 is invariably mute ; but as these dogs are chiefly used in aid of the 

 battue, there is not the same necessity for them to give notice of 

 their approach, as in the case of spaniels used either in wild-phea- 

 *ant shooting, or for cocks, hares, or rabbits. It will therefore ap 



