GUNS AND DOGS 15 



dogs." The competitive running of dogs for short 

 heats and at a high rate of speed (the dogs going at 

 long distances from the gun), it is argued, does not 

 make good shooting-dogs. Fast wide-ranging dogs are 

 often lost in the thickets and often get beyond the 

 range of the whistle. But speed and endurance as 

 well as " bird sense" are the qualities which go to 

 make up a good field-dog, and after listening to the 

 controversy until the small hours, between field-trial 

 men and shooters, at the tavern, after a field competi- 

 tion, I have arrived at the conclusion that the sports- 

 man will do well to select for his shooting, a dog of 

 field-trial stock, but one that has been especially trained, 

 not for a field-trial, but to hunt to the gun, as it is 

 called, or for field shooting. The slower dog, hunt- 

 ing carefully before the gun, is often referred to as a 

 " good meat dog." By that is meant, of course, that 

 more birds will be killed over him. There is much 

 force, however, in the saying of the handlers: " You 

 can teach 'em to stay in, you can't teach 'em to go out." 

 Give me the field-trial dog with all his energy and in- 

 dustry, trained down to hunt to the gun where there is 

 cover. On the vast prairies of the West, he cannot go 

 too fast or too far to suit me, provided always he be 

 stanch on his point and will always hold the birds 

 until the wagon arrives. 



There are three kinds of setters used in America, 

 the English setters, the Irish setters, and the Gordons. 

 The first-named are the most popular dogs. They are 

 of all colors. The black, white, and tan, and the orange 

 and white dogs are to my eye the handsomest. In each 

 case I like to see the head evenly marked, a broad 



