190 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPOKTSMEN. 



land and America, and deservedly so ; for, although his 

 admirable powers of scent, not surpassed by those of any 

 animal, and his great tractability, are undeniable points in 

 his favor, he is an ungainly, misshapen creature, a slow- 

 traveller, an awkward mover; and, though large-limbed, 

 strongly-boned, and to an unpractised eye powerfully made, 

 is for the most part so ill put together and slackly coupled, 

 that he is incapable of long and severe work, except at a 

 foot's pace. 



The improved English pointer, which is the dog gen- 

 erally in use under the name of pointer, is a cross of the 

 original Spanish dog with the fox-hound, or the greyhound, 

 or both — the union of the two affording probably the best 

 existing form. There are now numerous subvarieties, in 

 the shape of distinct families, raised and maintained by 

 different amateurs in the British Islands and elsewhere, 

 recognized apart by particular characteristics of form, 

 color, and style; which characteristic peculiarities they 

 transmit with the blood, all springing from some cross of 

 the Spanish dog with some of the other strains indicated 

 above, yet sufficiently remote from the original stock to 

 allow of inter-breeding, without any danger of deteriora- 

 tion from in-breeding, as it is termed, or incestuous breed- 

 ing, so as to obviate all necessity of farther intermixture 

 of foreign blood, as of the various hounds mentioned above. 



Of these English varieties, some are nearly as coarse, 

 heavy-shouldered, and slow as the old Spanish pointers ; 

 some are almost as slender, thin-flanked, and whip-sterned 

 as the greyhound ; and some with deeply feathered sterns 

 and sharp noses, showing a strong cross of the fox-hound. 



