1 32 DOMESTICATED DOGS. 



and heavy as compared with the greyhound, and slightly more so 

 than that of the foxhound, but flews, dewlap, and throatiness 

 have disappeared, and the aspect is now light and sprightly, 

 instead of being heavy and somnolent. In good strains the high 

 style of hunting for the body-scent is retained, but too often it is 

 replaced by the hound-like gallop, with head clown and stern 

 trailing quietly behind, which indicates that the breeder, after 

 resorting to the hound for pace and endurance, has not been 

 careful to reject those puppies in whom the hound's partiality for 

 the foot-scent has been retained. There is no excuse for this 

 stupidity, because every breeder ought to be aware that when he 

 puts two different animals together, though the offspring will, as 

 a rule, partake of the qualities of both, he can at will in the next 

 and subsequent crosses either keep or get rid' of any of them 

 which he may like or dislike. Whether, therefore, Mr. Edge and 

 his.cotemporaries, who produced the modern pointer, crossed the 

 Spanish dog with the foxhound or not, they ought carefully to 

 have got rid of low-hunting ; and this Mr. Edge undoubtedly did, 

 but there are other kennels of nearly equal celebrity in which a 

 low style of hunting and a trailing stern, with a tendency to 

 work in circles rather than in straight lines, indicate unmistak- 

 ably that the hound's faults (quoad shooting) have been retained: 

 Such dogs I have seen receive prizes at field trials, though I 

 would hang every one of them if I had my will; for though 

 some useful animals will sometimes be met with retaining a 

 disposition to hunt for a few years, yet the great majority of 

 them at the end of their first season do nothing but potter at 

 the hedgerows, and are thereby rendered utterly useless. 



Within the last thirty years the change in farming has com- 

 pletely upset the vocation of the pointer as a partridge-dog, 

 except in a few counties, such as Devonshire and Cornwall, 



