162 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



others. The Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway 

 have, made a tariff for dogfl (if twenty-five cents for the first 

 one hundred miles, and tea cents per one hundred mileB 

 after that. By this arrangement, owners can bring their 

 doga even from the far West at slight expense 



The picture gallery will be a novel and attractive feature. 

 he have made paintings of dogs are requested to 

 communicate with Mr. Lincoln, and the same request is 

 made of all who may have such paintings or engravings. A 

 number have already been offered, and should there be 

 sufficient to make it an object, an appendix will be added to 

 logue. The garden will be made very 

 attractive with its fountains, waterfall, etc., and from the 

 numerous applications being made for stalls for the ex- 

 hibition of sporting materials of every description, it would 

 ■ I in addition to a dog show there was to be a fair. 



A letter has been received from Gen. Knollys, Private. Sec- 

 retary to the Prince of Wales, in response to an invitation to 

 the Prince to exhibit some of his dogs. H. R. H. wishes the 

 >y success, but regrets that it will be impossible on 

 so short a notice to send any representatives from his kennel. 

 We noted last week that Mr. Macdona had written that 

 the eminent judge Mr. Lort would probably accompany him 

 from England. The presence of two such authorities at our 

 Bench Show would not only be of immense value, but would 

 add greatly to the telm of the occasion. 



Not the least attractive feature of the show will be the 

 magnificent display of that noblest of dogs, the St. Bernard. 

 Mr. Burdett Loomis, of Hartford, will exhibit his entire 

 kennel, and at least twenty-five States in all have been be- 

 spoken for this one breed. There will also be a large ex- 

 hibit of mastiffs, and one other feature quite new to Ameri- 

 can shows— that is, an exhibit of toy terriers in glass cages. 



There is a joke on the W. K. G, which is too good to keep. 

 When the Premium List was prepared gold was quoted at 

 104. It has now reached 107S, and it. looks as though it 

 might go to 130, which would work rather a difference in 

 the premiums. We suggest to the Club to "cover their 

 shorts" while they can. 



THE CAUSE OF GUN SHYNESS. 



CANADA. ON THE U. S. BENCH SHOW. 



Stratrot, Ontario, Canada, April 12, 1877. 

 Editor Forest and Stream. 



I am in receipt of prize list for the Bench Show to be held 

 at Gilmoro's Garden, New York, under the auspices of the 

 Westminster Kennel Club, on the 8th, 9th and 10th of May. 

 The. list, including special prizes, is a very good one — I think 

 the best, without any exception, offered nt any dog show ever 

 held in this country. The special prizes are exceptionally 

 good, being composed of not only good, but useful articles — 

 such as guns, fly rods, etc., etc. ; and the cups, Iunderstand, 

 are sterling silver, which should always be the case for tro- 

 pliies of this kind, no matter how small. With such a 

 special prize list, and §30 and $20 gold as first and second 

 prizes for sporting dogs in the open classes, it should be suf- 

 ficient to please all competitors, if not after, certainly before 

 the awards are announced. For my part, I consider it a 

 most liberal prize list, indeed, and one which should bring 

 together a grand collection of dogs, with Mr. Charles 

 Lincoln as manager. I have only to say, wben I saw 

 him managing the first show I ever attended in this 

 country, I then made up my mind he was either just 

 fitted for the place or the place for him, I could not 

 make up my mind which; and after meeting him at several 

 of the big shows since, I am just as far from coming to a con- 

 clusion as to which it is ; but one thing is sure, a dog show 

 has no business without him. I also notice Mr. John David- 

 son, of Monroe, Mich. iB to be one of the judges. Well, I 

 don't know what friend John's knowledge of sky terriers is, 

 but if I have a setter or a pointer possessed of any weak 

 points, please oblige me by not allowing him to judge in 

 these classes. I would here offer a little friendly advice to 

 disappointed exhibitors, if in Mr. Davidson's classes. For 

 gracious sake don't question him as to the whys and where- 

 loich thai things are thus thusly. If you do so, just look 

 Li in squarely in the face, and if'you don't get withered, then 

 I apologize, I once tried it. only once, mv dear friends; I 

 w .n't repeat it. 1 promise yon I will not; I shall never forget 

 the expression; t can't describe it. A double-barrel steel 

 trap on full cock, and me stepping back for feat it should go 

 oil', is as good an illustration as 1 can give vou of the picture. 

 1 wub foolish enough then to think I knew more about dogs 

 than Mi. Davidson did. I have long since come to the eon- 



hat I was laboring under a mistake, Th. very fact 

 that English sportsmen are coming across the Atlantic 

 • specially to see this show, should be an incentive to all the 



:. in America to turn out and make such a show of 

 : shall be proud of as long as we live. 



Yours truly, Dog Whip. 



—Mr. L. W. White's liver and white pointer bitch Grace, 

 whelped .in the' 6th iust. five puppies, all dogs, by the im- 

 ... i I 3og Morn, Morn is a lemon and White dog, imported 

 in Otero by fi-ov. William Sprague, fif Rhode island, and 

 strange to say, every one of these puppies was in color and 

 markings exactly like his sire. Grace is the first bitch he 



i, ..• ' , : . i. 1 to announce that he will be 



at the "New Yolk Beach Show, and will serve free, the bitch 

 of any exhibitor, providing she is pure bred, has an authenti- 

 cated pedigree, and is of any other color than lemon and 

 TChlte, ihe object being to | ' ■ ■"■- - ether he will transmit 

 Lis color, as it is claimed that the strain has bred true to 

 color for nine generations Mote itaftde 26 inohej high 



at the. shoulder, and weighs 57 p I 



— ^i» 



Doos Steaung Eggs.— Somebody inquired recently for a 

 remedy to cure dogs from stealing eggs. A correspond- 

 , that by observing the following proceeding a cure 

 will surely be effected: 



...-I. dog is in the habit of visit- 

 ;,.. and prick into one end of it aliberal 



■ i . . i ■ ipper, and all you have to do is to 



. [ 1 1 ,. .. .■. .'•■ .•are then it must 



I I .t!. Hoping that this will prove a 



"i Liueiistia- Fa, PbDBO, 



BiiACKSBuno, Ya., April 2, 1877. 



EDITOB FOIIEST AHD STREAM. 



In a late issue of your paper I find a letter from Capt. J. 

 M. Taylor, in which he gives expression to an opinion which 

 seems to be getting very prevalent now , and is being apparent- 

 ly pushed to extremes. Capt. Taylor attributes gun shyness 

 to breading setters at puberty. Recently, in correspondence 

 with the owner of the dog I considered 'the best to breed my 

 young Blut to, the gentleman expressed himself unwilling to 

 breed his dog to any slut less than two years old, because at 

 an earlier age than two years he. thought a setter slut too im- 

 mature to breed anything but immature and Weakly pups. 

 With all due deference to the opinions of others, I beg leave 

 to say that I differ very widely from them. I have been 

 breeding and breaking setters and pointers for thirty years, 

 and in that time I have had three badly gun shy. The first 

 of these was from a slut and dog each about 6 years old. 

 The second was from a dog past 10, and slut about 5 

 years old. The last was from a slut never bred until past 3 

 years old, and by a very old dog. I am aware that in- 

 dividual cases count for little, but has Capt. Taylor any other 

 sort of argument for his view of the case? I have seen gun- 

 shy dogs of every breed. At times it appears to be of acci- 

 dental acquirement and merely individual attachment, but 

 like all other traits, it is unquestionably hereditary, as was 

 the case in all the instances I have known. I give sports- 

 men the assurance that a dog or slut having this defect, even 

 though perfectly cured, as it very often can be by judicious 

 treatment, will very often, and long after the cure, produce 

 offspring in which the defect will reappear. A setter slut 

 will be in heat for the first time, usually, at from 10 to 14 

 months old, most frequently in my experience a little past 

 12 months, and at that time it is far better to breed them 

 than not. It appears to be clearly established that females 

 which produce young at an early age make the best mothers, 

 and it is equally oertain that animals allowed to pass by the 

 period of puberty for several years sometimes cannot be' bred 

 from at all, having become barren from desire of the repro- 

 ductive functions. In matters of tliis sort nature is a toler- 

 ably good guide, and it will be seldom that a slut will be in 

 heat before she is mature enough to breed. I believe there 

 is no evidence that the whelps of the first btter of young 

 mothers are in any way inferior to those of any subsequent 

 litters. I have, been familiar with the breeding of dogs 

 from earliest infancy, as my father always kept and bred a 

 vast number of them, being devoted to the chase, as I myself 

 have always been. I have never met with a fact or statement 

 which tends to establish the idea that a setter slut at 14 or 

 15 months old — the usual time for the first litter — is too im- 

 mature to bring forth healthy and vigorous young. If there 

 be among the highly bred English setters of recent importa- 

 tion a disposition to gun shyness and idiocy, it is not to be 

 attributed to their having been bred too young, but to too 

 close inbreeding and the absurdly artificial treatment to 

 which they are subjected in the kennels of professionals. If 

 breeding from young mothers would pre>duce idiots, it would 

 seem that Jersey cattle ought to be the most foolish beasts in 

 the whole world. I do not advocate a system of breeding 

 which has for its object the development of precocity in this 

 respect. I have some experience in physiology and Natural 

 History, and much in the breeding of all kind of animals, 

 and I advise inexperienced sportsmen not to allow any setter 

 slut to become 3 years old before she becomes a mother if it 

 can be helped, if she is to be used to breed from. It seems 

 to me gentlemen scarcely consider the effect of their words 

 when they speak of a dog 14 or 15 months old as a wholly 

 immature puppy. As this is a question of high interest, I 

 think I might venture to ask that if Capt. Taylor has any 

 statistics upon which his opinion is based, he will be kind 

 enough to give them to the public. Yours, etc., 



M. G. Eklzet. 



SETTERS— ENGLISH. SCOTCH, AND 

 IRISH. 



THE IRISH SETTER. 



THIS breed has long been known to sportsmen through- 

 out Great Britain as a good one, especially in point of 

 stamina, and a class was set apart for it at Birmingham in 

 18110, a year before the black and tans were similarly favored, 

 though,' I think, hardly from so fluttering a cause, and most 

 probably from the circumstances that Mr. Jones, of Oscott, 

 who was then a prominent member of the committee, 

 possessed two specimens of the breed, which he had recently 

 obtained from Ireland; but, to his disgust, Major Irving, 

 who judged the class, awarded the first prize to Mr, B. F. 

 Onslow, of Herefordshire, Mr. Jones getting a second only 

 with his Carlo, with which dog, however, under the same 

 judge, he beat a better class in 1861, including Mr. Watt's 

 Banger, a slashing one in appearance, but, unfortunately, 

 with a pedigree which was disputed. In 1863 Major Hutch- 

 inson brought out Bob, whose pedigree exhibits a strain of 

 the celebrated La Touche breed, and with him he carried off 

 the chief prizes at Birmingham, Cremorne, and Islington 

 in 18114, leading to his selection for the illustration of the 

 ' Irish setter in 1865. He was. however, not a 

 ien, being too heavy both in frame and head, 

 ■ overtopped, although otherwise useful, and, I 

 to believe, thoroughly good in the field. In 

 away exhibited his beautiful brace, Shot and 

 GiMiise.'-.vln.h were generally accepted as showing all the 

 peculiarities of the. breed, and of such a fine formation that 

 Shot, considered bj me inferior in shape to his brother, ob- 

 tained the silver eiip for the best setter in the show, after a 

 warm dispute between the two judges, Messrs. Lang and 

 Walker, in which the former, an excellent and experienced 

 judge, stuck to the Irishman throughout, while the hitter 

 rongly in favor of Fred IL, a well-known Laverack, 

 and the referee was ealledon to decide between them. Capt. 

 Allaway maintained his position till 1871, when Capt. 

 Cooper brought out his Banger, a son of Hutchinson's Bob, 

 and also straining back on the dam's side to the La Touche 

 kennel, At length, in 1873, Dr. Stone come out with his 

 Dash, who was admitted to be almost perfect in shape, and 

 of the true type. He took every prize until age compelled 

 his retirement in favor of Mi llilliard'a t'almerston, who 

 may now be considered the. best public representative of the 

 breed. Dash is of Dr. Stone's own strain, which he has kept 

 to himself for twenty-five years, in color blood-red, showing 

 white on his head and toes, and also on his neck, with great 

 quality, and a faultless frame. 



There is no reason to suppose that any improvement had 

 lace in this breed in its native country until very 



article- on the 

 typical spe 

 and obviol 



recently, when the institution of local shows seems to have 

 stimulated Irish breeders to fresh exertions; but in the ex- 

 hibits which have been made on this side the Channel the 

 chain of progress has been unbroken from Carlo to Dash 

 and Palmerston. In the field trials, the Rev. J. C. Mao- 

 dona has raised its character by producing his Plunket at 

 Shrewsbury in 1870, after which he was sold to Mr. Puroell 

 Llewellyn, and took prizes at Vaynol, Southampton, and 

 Shrewsbury. This dog was very small and bitch-like in ap- 

 pearance, and rather Ught in color, but his pace was very 

 great, though not perhaps quite equal to that of the Laver- 

 ack Countess, wills his style of going and bis attitude on 

 the point were far superior to hers. Ho was bred by the 

 Hon. D. Plunket. and combines the blood of that gentleman's 

 kennel with the La Touche and Hutchinson strains. Mr. 

 Purcell Llewellyn purchased him in the height of his suc- 



ut of Kate 



ml average dogs from hii 



ry's strain), including Kimo, Kite, and 



"n, contained 



and bred sei 

 (of the Knight of Kei 



Kitty; while, another fitter, out of BuckclTs Mil 

 Marvel, May, and Knowing, less successful thau the former, 

 both on the bench and in the field. With the solitary ex- 

 ception of Plunket, however, no L-ish setter has shown any- 

 thing like high form in the field trials, Mr. Pnrcelt Llew- 

 ellyn's Samson, who is above the average, being crossed with 

 the Laverack Prince through his dam, Carrie, though both 

 are entered in the Stud Book as Dish setters. 



After a great deal of discussion, a separate class has been 

 made in Dublin and elsewhere for reds and white and reds, 

 it being shown that there are two distinct strains of the 

 Irish setter, of these colors respectively. The white and 

 reds stand no chance in the open classes, and yet it was con- 

 sidered hard to debar them from all prizes, especially as by 

 some good judges they are thought to possess better noses 

 than the reds. According to my judgment, the rich red, or 

 blood-red color as it is described,' is made a little too much 

 of, and I should strongly object to the passing over of ex- 

 cellence in shape because the color is too pale, a marked 

 instance of which happened at the Brighton show of 1876. 

 Here one of the grandest bitches I ever saw in shape, size 

 and quality, who had won several prizes in Ireland, and 

 moreover of excellent blood, succumbed to very mediocre 

 animals, simply because her coat was too pale in color, 

 though very little, if any, paler than tbat of the above-men- 

 tioned excellent dog Plunket. H this class had been judged 

 by points, the bitch in question would have distanced her 

 competitors, because she would have been credited with a 

 full allowance for all other qualities, and could only have 

 had ten points altogether knocked off for the negative value 

 of color. 



The old breeds of this dog most celebrated are the O'Con- 

 nor (generally known as La Touche), Lord Dillon's, Lord 

 Clancarty's. Lord Lismore's Lord de Fresno's (usually called 

 the French Park), the Mount Hedges, Lord Rossmore's, and 

 the Marquis of Waterford's. In modern days Dr. Stone, 

 Major Hutchinson, Capt. Cooper, Capt. French, Mr. H. B. 

 Knox, Hon. D. Plunket, Capt, W. Allaway. Mr. Uilliard, 

 Mr. Lipscombc, Mr. C. Brien, and Miss Warburton have 

 been most successful on the show bench; but, with the ex- 

 ception of Plunket, none of them have proved the excellence 

 of their strains at any field trial. 



In points the Irish setter only differs from the English 

 the following: 



1. The skull is somewhat longer and narrower, the eye- 

 brows being weU raised, and the occipital prominence as 

 marked as in the pointer. 



2. The nose is a trifle longer, with good width, and Bquare 

 at the end; nostrils wide and open, with the nose itself of a 

 deep mahogany or very dark fleshy-color, not pink or black. 



3. Eyes, eir.v, imd lipx. — The eyes should be a rich brown 

 or mahogany color, well set, and full of intelligence; a pale 

 or gooseberry eye is to be avoided. Ears long enough to 

 reach within' half an inch or an inch of the end of the nose, 

 and, though more tapering than in the English dog, never 

 coming to a point; they should be set low and close, but 

 well back, and not approaching to the hound's in setting and 

 leather. Whiskers red ; lips deep, but not pendulous. 



5 and 6. In frame the Dish dog is higher on the leg than 



d tan, but his elbows are well 

 ihoulders are long and sloping; 



a ; and his back ribs are some- 

 is English brethren. Loin good, 

 upled to his hips, but not very 

 ling, and flag set on rather low, 

 ,d beautifully carried. Breeders 

 ghl backs like that of Palmers- 

 has in the English si. tier. 

 ,h good hocks, well-bent stifles, 



either the English or blai 

 let down nevertheless; t& 



brisket deep, but never wic 

 what short-:' thftU thosi f1 



slightly arched, an ! .. "I ■■■ 

 wide; quarters slightly si, 

 but straight, tine in hone, a: 

 are, however, going for shra 

 ton, with flags set on as hit 



7. Legs very stj 

 and muscular but. not beftv 



8. The feet are bare-like,' 

 the toes. 



9. The flag is clothed with a long, straight comb of hair, 

 never bushy "or curly, and this is "beautifully displayed on 

 the point. 



11. The coat should be. somewhat coarser than that of the 



jderatoly hairy between 



Englis 

 and tan, wavy but not t 

 hind and fore-legs are- v 

 the ears are furnished 

 a slight t— 

 12: Th 



s by 1 



prcpond 

 • 'white a 



d-way between that and the black 

 rrly, and by no means long. Both 

 ell feathered, but not profusely, and 

 nth feather to the same extent, with 

 bufiio 



-.1- should be a rich blood red, without, any 

 on the ears or along the back, in many of the 

 , a pale color or occasional tinge of 

 1. A little white on the neck, breast, or toffl 

 objectionable, and there is do doubt that the 

 o as to constitute what is called 

 i with in some good strains. 

 1 setter isfast and enduring; his nose 

 L'c of fast dogs in delicacy, and to 

 ) a small kennel, he is an invaluable 

 leg is very beautiful, with 

 icent; he 1ms a free 

 brought well undi 1 

 . .. . the slightest indication of 

 His advocates contend 

 ny other setter when once broken, 

 eiice goes, I scarcely think this posi- 

 tion can be maintained. Neither Plunket nor any that I 

 ] ■;. , seen of Ml Parcel! Llewellyn's 1. reeding, nor indeed 

 hi have had out in private, have, been 

 ;,■.., - ... ,.,.,, n I I fear that, like almost all other setters of 

 courage, it must, be admitted that he requires 



,1 . : ■■. n a state of control fit for immediate uho 



with the gun. in 1 1 i uad indeed In 3t ticac . 



lOththe English and Irish setter must yield to the 



bkujfc and I oe best aUraim 



least a double ta| 1 t'thell mentioned must 

 be kept. 



. . 



puMieotion of these 



articles jn book form. 



iderance of white, 

 id red," is ri 

 In his Wtrb, the ]"r 

 is quite up to the ave 

 those who are limitee 

 aid to the gun. His 

 head well up end fa 

 action of the shoulde 

 and a merry lashing ^ 

 it — often, 



that he 



, steady 1 



