Jtkb 23, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



411 



lite fennel 



FIXTURES. 



BENCH SHOWS. 

 April 3. 4, 5 and 6,1888. Western Pennsylvania Poultry Society's 

 Fifth Annual Bench Show, l'illsoorgh. Pa. Entries for the Bench 

 Show Derby, for Engl is] i sc Hers whelped on or after March 1.1882, 

 close December l, 18S?. Chas. Lincoln, Superintendent. I. R. Stay- 

 ton, Secretary. Allegheny Uitv. Pa. 



Bepteml 

 Chickens, 

 Afl-agecLI 



High Poin 



Aged and 

 Ne«- York 



Grand Jui 

 Deeemb 

 sas. La. 

 Orleans, I 



—National American Kennel Club Field Trials on Prairie 

 nont, Minn. Entries for the Derby close July 1, for the 

 4. Jo*. H. Dew. Columbia, Teun., Secretary. 

 -Eastern Field TriftlSJ In ! i; trials on Quail, near 

 C. Entries Few n •lo.-.n July!. For the AU- 



N-H-omher i F, N. Hall, P. O. Box 884, 



-National American Kennel Club Field Trials on Quail, 

 1, Tenn. D. Brvsnn, Memphis, Tenn., Secretary. 

 -New ( ttleana ban Club Field Trials or Quail. Opelou- 

 bs close December 10. J. K. iteaaud. Secretary. New 



FAIRY PRINCE. 



THE subject of our illustration is Fairy Prince, owned by 

 Mr. A.' S. Bishop, of Pittsburgh, ¥&. Fairy Prince is a 

 medium sized blue bekoti Laverack setter dog, whelped Sept. 

 15. 1880, by Pontiae out of Fairy II. He was bred by Mr. J. 

 C. Higgins. of Delaware City, Del. He has been shown but 

 twice. His first appearance was at Pittsburgh last March, 

 where he captured second in the Laverock class. We then 

 expressed the opinion that when mature he would be heard 

 from again, a prediction that was verified a few weeks later 

 at the New York show, where he was shown in better form 

 and easily won first in the native English setter class, a very 

 large, and good one, and again was second in the special class 

 for Laverocks. He is of capital form, and when fully ma- 

 tured, will be a very hard dog to beat. The cut is from a 

 sketch by Harry Tallman, and is a very good likeness. 



THE DOG. 

 His History and Qualities.— IV. 



BT SETTEX. 



THE sculptures of Nineveh and the hieroglyphics of Egypt 

 attest the very early domestication of the dog, and the 

 existence of races similar to some of those which exist at the 

 present day; and the high value attached to him. by many na- 

 tions is further attested by the place assigned to 'him, or his 

 image, as emblematic of the attributes which they ascribed to 

 their gods. Dining all these ages there seems not to have been 

 any distinct classification of dogs into groups or species, but 

 we observe certain species were, prized beyond all others ^!or 

 the offices of the hunter and fowler. 



In "Johnson's Natural History," showing the habits, struc- 

 tures and classification of animals, by the Honorable S. G-. 

 Goodrich, the family of Oanidai, -from, canis, a dog, are thus 

 classified: The Cynhyene, including the hyena dog; the canis, 

 including the dog. wolf and jackal: the vulpes, including the 

 fox and fennee and the otocyon. Of the Cynhyene there is a 

 single species, the Cynhyama. which is found from Caffraria 

 t o Abyssinia, It is nearly of the size of the wolf, its dentition 

 is that of the dog. with long legs and large jaws, but is distin- 

 guished by baying only four toes on each foot. Like other 

 dogs in their wild state, they hunt then- game in large packs, 

 which are. led by a chief. The genus canis, or dog, in many 

 respects the most remarkable brute in the whole circle of an- 

 imated nature, was classified by F. Cuvier, in accordance with 

 the development of the frontal sinus — the cerebral cavity — 

 into three grand divisions. This division was found, however, 

 to be ill adapted to the present state of knowledge covering 

 this subject; and another classification, founded on that of 

 Hamilton Smith, with modifications by G-ervais and others, is 

 found to be the most accurate and complete, espeeiaUy with 

 reference to the domesticated varieties. 



In this classification here are embraced six divisions with 

 reference to their principal characteristics. The 1st division 

 contemplates the greyhound, the canis fa in ilia ris leporarius, 

 and its Kindred which comprise the English, Scotch and Irish 

 greyhounds; then follow in order the. Russian, the Grecian, 

 theTurkisk, the Persian and the Italian greyhound. This 

 division of the canis is characterized by a small head, slender 

 limbs, and a gaunt form. An old description of the greyhound 

 thus runs: 



"A greyhounds should be headed lyke a snake. 



And neckyd lyke a drake, 



Fotyd lyke a cat, 



Tayled lyke a ratte, 



Syded like a teme. 



And chyued like a bream. " 



Division n. comprises the matin, from a French word signi- 

 fying mastiff, is a breed peculiarly esteemed in France, and 

 was erroneously regarded by Buff on as the progenitor of the 

 dog race. He is of medium size, robust frame, short hair, 

 erect ears anda little pendulous at the tip, possessing moderate 

 powers of scent, great activity and endurance with a some- 

 what fierce disposition. Among its varieties are the Dalnia- 

 tion or great Danish dog, the Cuban mastiff or Cuban blood- 

 hound, and according to Gervais the'primitivc turnspit, who 

 in former days was much regarded as an auxiliary in most of 

 the kitchens of Europe, but whose place is now usurped by 

 modern improvements in the machinery of cooking. 



Division III. embraces the shaggy or woolly breeds, and 

 possesses many of the most remarkable and interesting spe- 

 cies. They are known as the St. Bernard dog, the Newfound- 

 land, the Labrador, the Lapland, the Hare Indian, the Ice- 

 land, the Shepherd's dog, the Pomeranian Wolf and the 

 Drover's dog. 



Division IV. contemplates the hunting dogs, hounds and 

 spaniels, the division that most interests us at the present. 

 They are divided into the old English hound, which is said to 

 be the original stock of the island of Great Britain, and was 

 principally employed in the chase. The foxhound is a cross 

 between the first and fourth divisions, and became soon after 

 the most celebrated and esteemed hunting dog in England. 

 Thestaghouud is still another cross, which has at present be- 

 come a part of the regular Crown establish m ent. The royal 

 kennel is situated upon Ascot Heath, about six miles from 

 Windsor, and Swinley Lodge, the official residence of the 

 master of these hounds, is about one mile distant from the 

 kennel. The varieties of this division are the English blood- 

 hound, the. African bloodhound, the otterhound, the beagle, 

 the harrier, the lurcher, the spaniel, the setter, the pointer 

 and the water spa nieL 



Division V. embraces the cur dogs, or mixed breeds (and 

 then- name is legion-, among which are the terriers, fchfi 

 pariahs of India and generally the vagabond street dogs of 

 Asia and Africa; the poB, found in the islands of the Pacific; 

 the kararahe, the native of New Zealand; the serm-doniestic 

 dogs of the. Indians of Patagonia and Terra del Fuego, and 

 also the dingo, of New Holland, are comprehended in this 

 class. 



The sixth division comprises the. mastiffs, the bulldog and 

 his crosses, including the bull terriers and the pug dog. 



Of Division IV. I shall confine, my attention to the cocker 

 irlety of the spaniel, Tl»s cocker, one of the smallest 

 of the land species, and by Ear useful to the modem 



sportsman, was ch telly used in flushing wodHcocka or pheas- 

 ants from dense underbrush ai id thick coverts into which the 

 setter cannot enter. He is i ixue.edingly active, wiry and 





MR. A. S. BISHOP'S LAVERACK SETTER "FAIRY PRINCE." 



nimble, and gives forth a whimper or bubbling tone as soon 

 as he comes upon the scent of game, and if 'not properly 

 trained will sometimes flush the bird before the sportsman is 

 fairly within range, but when he is properly trained and is 

 made to hunt close and not to give tongue until the bird 

 arises, he is the most valuable of all the varieties of the 

 spaniel. I have found the most satisfied enjoyment in the. 

 thick coverts and the. dense raspberry patches in the woods of 

 Northern Michigan in search of the partridge and woodcock 

 with my favorite and intelligent cockers, than with any other 

 kind of 'field sports. There can scarcely be imagined a prettier 

 object than the nervous, restless and impatient cocker, full of 

 activity and bustling in every direction, with the quick and 

 constant motion of his tail inclined a little downward. "The 

 moment he scents the bird, expressing his delight by the 

 quivering of every limb, and the low, eager whimpering 

 which the best breaking cannot always subdue, he pounces 

 suddenly upon his prize',' when the affrighted bird rises, and 

 then the little cocker shrieks out his ecstacy, startling even 

 the sportsman with his sharp, shrill and strangely expressive 

 bark." 



This beautiful, intelligent little hunting dog has been so 

 changed by crosses with large field and water spaniels, etc., 

 etc., till to-day there seems not a single breeder or admirer of 

 the. cocker who can claim for him a clean and pure standard. 

 All the evidence of "ye olden time" fully demonstrates that 

 he was a small, active , wiry, short and clean-limbed dog. 

 The old artists who painted him made him a small dog, short 

 muzzle, long silky ears, round head, and a compact, active 

 little dog scarcely weighing over eighteen pounds. In fact, 

 there is no question but that the little cocker, from design 

 and perhaps partly by accident, has changed very much his 

 standard and scale of points from what he was some one hun- 

 dred or more years ago. I shall not inquire to what this 

 changd is attributed, nor do I intend to call in question the 

 motives inducing it. My present paper is intended to show 

 the confusion— perplexity— which surrounds the type of the 

 cooker, and to see. if some planmaynot be developed whereby 

 his standard may become as fixed and as certain as that 

 which marks the setter or the pointer. I believe it is pretty 

 generally admitted that in England no cocker standard proper 

 exists to-day, from the hit ermingling of the cocker with other 

 varieties of "the much-admired spaniel. American breeders 

 have as a rule followed the example of old England, and seem 

 to think it the most important consideration that the strain, 

 be enlarged and be clothed with more bone and muscle, so as 

 to give him power and endurance. 



Does it not occur to the American breeder and sportsman 

 that in enlarging his frame, strengthening his bone and 

 muscle, and in every way augmenting his bulk, that he is 

 being unfitted for the sportsman in those very positions 

 where his increased size detracts from his usefulness in thick 

 covert and hedgerow shooting. If larger dogs are needed for 

 any special work that the setter or pointer if unfitted for, 

 why, in justice, to the little cocker, is not the. field spaniel bred 

 up "to this kind of work, but don't call the progeny cockers. 

 This overweening desire to attach the name cocker to every- 

 thing that partakes of the mixed spaniel strain is not only sim- 

 ply ridiculous, but this intermingling of field spaniels and cock- 

 er's is affecting all the variety of spaniels in our bench shows 

 and is fast wiping out the useful and pretty little cocker. There 

 was a distinct type of the cocker, there is now only an ideal 

 type. Frank Forester, the father of American field sports, 

 speaks of the old styled cockers in Vol. I. of his "Field 

 Sports" thus: "The cocker cannot better be described than 

 as resembling a setter in the same degree as a punchy, power- 

 ful, short-legged pony resembles a well-bred horse. It is very 

 strong and bony for its size; the head, and especially the 

 nose, is proportionally much shorter than that of the setter, 

 the frontal sinuses more fully developed, the eye larger and 

 more prominent, the ears much longer and more curly, some 

 so long that they literally seem as if they were intended to 

 sweep awav the morning dew, the coats are altogether longer 

 and more curly, the tail not merely feathered, but bushy, 

 and the lees thickly fringed, even to the toes, and in weight 

 ho is seldom above, twenty pounds." . 



Stonehenge, the English leading authority, m his "Dogs of 

 England and the. British Islands," says of the cocker that he 

 is in general terms ' 'a light, active spaniel of about fourteen 

 pounds weight on the average, sometimes reaching twenty 

 pounds, with very elegant shapes. The head is round and 

 the forehead raised The ear of good length and well clothed 

 with soft wavy hair." which should be thick and wavy but 

 not absolutely curled. 



Mr. John Davidson, of Monroe, Michigan, than whom a 

 better authority of the standard and scale of points that be- 

 long to the various types of dogs does not exist on this conti- 

 nent, and whose know ledge of the cocker carries him to the 

 period of his purity, thus writes: "In reply to your inquiries 

 relative, to the cocker spaniel, I would say the most perfect 

 specimens of this most interesting little dog I have ever seen, 

 were those weighing from fourteen to eighteen pounds, and 

 bitches from twelve to sixteen pounds ; in height from eleven 

 to thirteen inches. The head was round and the forehead 

 full, with a decided stop between the. eyes, which were full, 

 lively and intelligent, with a clean muzzle and level lips, with 

 open, wide, nostrils: ears long and broad, set well back and 

 low down on the head; neck clean and long and well arched. 

 with chest both deep and broad; back strong and level, with 

 ribs well sprung, and immense loins for a'dog of the height; 

 with powerful shoulders, and quarters less straight and 

 strong, with round fine feet well protected by hair; stern 



docked and carried under the level of the back; coat wavy 

 and silky, with the profile beautifully fringed. The colors 

 most prevalent were liver and white and white flecked and 

 ticked on legs and face: although I have, seen black and white 

 flecked and 'licked, sohd black, solid liver, liver and tan; also 

 black, white, and tan. This description agrees as near as I 

 can give with the dogs I was taught to consider as the pure 

 old English cocker, and the dogs which were used for wood- 

 cock shooting in coverts, from which originates their name.' 



M. P. McKoon, of the Blue Star Kennel, who has given al- 

 most a life-time to the culture of this intelligent dog, coin- 

 cides very closely with the authorities above quoted, and T 

 believe all fair-minded cocker breeders will acknowledge his 

 competency in denning the true type of the cocker. In his 

 views upon the adoption of a cocker standard, when the A. 

 C. S. Club was being organized, he thus wrote: "America has 

 never had a cocker standard proper, and we are here to frame 

 such standard for the best interests of the pure- and undented 

 cocker, regardless of our own dogs or those of any interested 

 parties through favor or desire. But we should construct this 

 standard as near as possible to the perfect type of the cocker, 

 so that the best formed and qualified cockers for American 

 work may go to the front at our bench shows." 



I could'bring scores of breeders and admirers of the little 

 cocker to prove, first, that the original and true type of the 

 cocker constituted a small, active, wiry dog, with long, broad 

 ears, short muzzle, long, well-arched neck, deep, broad chest, 

 back strong and level" stout loins, ribs well sprung, with a. 

 wavy or flat coat, round-bodied and shorUegged, and not 

 weighing over twenty pounds. 



Now if we compare this type of dog with the recent stan- 

 dard as adopted by the American Cocker Spaniel Club, we 

 shall see that quite another variety of spaniel is described, 

 and no more like the cocker than I am to Hercules. The re- 

 sult of this erroneous, ill-advised and unfortunate standard, 

 instead of "encouraging the systematic breeding of cocker 

 spaniels," has had just the opposite effect. It has shaken the 

 judgment of those who knew little of the spaniel (cocker) by 

 reading and observation, and has so confused and perplexed 

 the minds of breeders that they are gradually departing from 

 the true type of the cocker to follow an ignis fatuus of fanci- 

 ful creation, and the cocker is fast being bred up to the type 

 of the field spaniel by intermixture with the latter varieties. 

 The appearance upon American soil within the past two or 

 three years of certain imported varieties of black spaniels, and 

 the infatuation that has seized the brains of some of our 

 cocker breeders, has, through color alone, clone much to upset, 

 the characteristics of the true cocker. 



A letter from one who stands high in the councils of cock- 

 erdom and who, I believe, is a fair, just and upright breeder 

 of the spaniel, thus writes tome: "There is as you say a 

 rush after the -black variety;' they are good enough for 

 shows and they are fashionable, but they can never take the 

 place of the liver and white and black and white, for cover 

 shooting. No one can have the good of the breed more at 

 heart than I, for at some. time, which I hope is not far distant, 

 1 hope to make a living at it." "I think you cannot get ears 

 and legs feathered too much for show purposes, but for work 

 give me a small ear and as little feather as possible. There is 

 no use of having a fine fleece to hang up on the briars or gather 

 burrs, which you will have to comb out when you get home." 

 "Black does hot frighten me, if they beat me 111 try again, 

 but they must be good ones to do it." These are the views oi 

 a breeder who thinks "the colors should be kept separate," and 

 that "show managers by dividing the classes have done the 

 best thing that ever was done for liver and white. Tin 

 wiUwinintheend." Here follows an extract from a cocker 

 breeder who writes thus in speaking of a certain cocker dog 

 that won In one of our late bench shows. "The only way he 

 ever won at all was he was sitnply 'black.' and that was a 

 monstrous abuse of the black strain." "We sold just such a 

 shaped dog as he is (only better carnage) at two years of age 

 for .sla; we wouldn't send such a dog out for a cocker." Next. 

 follows certain opinions in reference to the "stud cocker 

 spaniel" Obo, that took several first prizes in England 

 as a cocker. Now mark the criticism that follows. The Field. 

 July, 1881, says: "The beautiful Obo had no difficulty in car - 

 rying off the prize among the Sussex and black spaniels." A 

 cocker to carry off the prizes in company with the St! 

 spaniels, which Stonehenge savs "is a distinct and a very old 

 established breed." He divide's the honors of old family 'with 

 the clumber, and he should be of a golden liver color and 

 should weigh about thirty -five pounds.' Is not this confusion 

 worse confounded, when a cocker of certain lineage that 

 should not exceed twenty pounds in weight can carry off a 

 prize among the Sussex spaniels that have an old and distinct, 

 type and -weigh about thirty-five pounds? 



I know of at least two breeders who cross their live] 

 white cockers with field spaniels which are "too la 

 the cocser class," sell their progeny tor cocker-, because, as 

 they say, the field spaniel gives them "more bone, and muscle,, 

 which the. better tits them for field work." Another letter. 

 written to me by a breeder, uses the following language: 

 "We like the field spaniel for the reason that he will stand 

 more work in field or on road, and is equally as good hunt- 

 ers," etc, "At first we didn't take to the color 

 time has convinced us. They make a fine appearance in 

 whiter with the white snow for a background." Is it poss 

 that the last paragraph is the convincing argument that 

 settled this distinction of color with the cocker breeder last, 

 referred to? I can appreciate the importance of dark colors 

 in hunting the rabbit or wily fox when mother earth is clad 



