208 MANUAL FOR YOUNG SPORTSMEN. 
It is true, that they require constant attention, firm- 
ness, steadiness and temper; but so do all dogs. These, 
I think, not more than most others, excepting always the 
steady pointer, certainly less than the headstrong and 
fierce Irish setter. 
Moreover, the attention of the sportsman is at all 
events required to fewer points. To hunt close and mute, 
and to drop to shot is all that he has to ask, and, if asked 
becomingly, he will not be disappointed. 
To conclude, no one, I believe, who has ever shot cock 
in a wet July brake of alders, or what is worse, in the 
ravine of a Maryland branch, over Clumber spaniels, will 
ever voluntarily return to the setter or the pointer, how- 
ever pre-eminently superior at their own work, and over 
their own line of country. 
