THE POINTER. 19 



nn admirer of large dogs^ ha^dng found tliem less 

 capable of enduring fatigue and hard work tlian 

 tliose of a smaller size ; and often, too, suffering 

 in comparison with small dogs on the score of 

 sagacity. The best dogs I have ever seen, and by 

 far the best I ever possessed, have been small; 

 and 1 can safely say that I never yet met with a 

 very large dog that could fairly lay claim even to 

 mediocrity in the field. 



Pointers, for vrant of judicious crossing, are apt 

 to become too fine and tender, and deficient in 

 sagacity. They also frequently acquire " too much 

 set ;" that is, acquire a habit of pointing at small 

 birds or places from T\-hich the game has flown for 

 «ome time, and frequently pointing at no ascer- 

 tainable object whatever. A dog of this descrip- 

 tion is absolutely worthless, and may be destroyed 

 at once; but it often happens that dogs of the 

 most unexceptionable form acquire this habit, and 

 it may be Avished to perpetuate a breed of hand- 

 some dogs. By crossing a bitch Avith a large- 

 headed middle-sized foxhound this may be accom- 

 plished. The first remove may not be all that 

 is desired ; but the second cross from the foxhound 

 has produced some of the best dogs ever known 

 in the world. 



It is when pointers are bred too fine, too much 

 in-and-in, that this habit of false pointing makes 

 its appearance ; to remove Avhich a cross witli a 



