CARDINAL QUALITIES OF HUNTING DOGS. 57 
South, the winter season finds the fields an inter- 
minable waste of cockle-burs. These are too 
well known to every sportsman to require any 
description. The slightest brush is sufficient to 
detach them from their stems; they are, there- 
fore, a source of exceeding annoyance to setters, 
becoming entangled as they do in their long hair, 
from which they are only removed with the great- 
est difficulty. Not infrequently these dogs, on 
a hot trail, will stop and attempt to pull out the 
pests from their coats with their teeth. In such 
countries the pointer is but slightly inconveni- 
enced, and he needs but a brush through the bush 
or stiff cover to remove the burs if they have 
attached themselves to him. 
Setters and pointers have ever seemed to divide 
the honors, and there is one breed of dogs, hardy 
workers — the cocker spaniels —of which very 
little is generally known. Oftentimes the briers 
and bushes are so thick, the size of the pointer, 
or his reluctance to enter, or the thick long hair 
of the setter, is the cause of a light, or empty, 
game-bag. Under such conditions, the cocker is 
invaluable. Never over twelve inches high, lithe 
and ambitious, he can easily penetrate and pass 
