474 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



0m. 81, I8S1» 



IN RE ANTONIO VS. MAID OF KENT. 



J 



Editor 'Fore,>ii a nd Stream: 



At the close of t:be Central Field Trials I was courteously 

 informed by the reporters that tliey would dissent from the 

 judges' decision iu the four-hour race. 



By disc-tiKsiou, I soou learned that they diiSerefl from ns in 

 retiard to importuQt matters of fact, aud also in regard to 

 the beaiiua; of fa.cts upon the issue. 



■\Vbile iiisc]aimiu.£; any wish to enter into coBtroversy, or 

 to complain of criticism, it seems to rae proper to give the 

 public the case as the judges saw it. 



Autouio had the luck to draw the bye, and was sent to run 

 his bye heat under Mr. H. Penry as side judge. It was ex- 

 l>eeted to finish the All-Aged Pointer Stake before noon 

 and to bepin the four-hoiu* race in the afternoon, therefore 

 we ordered out Antonio to run his bye so as to be in readi- 

 ness to .^0 down against the winner of first heat, which 

 would be run at the same time. Unfortunately, the Pointer 

 Stake could not be finished in time, so that Antonio got a 

 (lay's rest more than the other dogs. We might have stopped 

 the niinnog of the bye, but hardly thought it right when we 

 had brought Mr. Avant out some four miles with his dog. 

 Pjspecially as he had yielded his allotted place in the draw- 

 ing to euaVdc us to so arrange the running as to avoid the 

 necessity of making Paul Bo run a heafc for the Absolute 

 All-Aged Stake and a foui--hour heat on the same day. The 

 original drawing was very favorable to Mr. Avent, and after 

 his consent] ne to change it for the accommodation of a com- 

 petitor, we did not think proper to subject him to a further 

 and arbitrary change. 



Fortunately the disability of Paul Bo gave Maid of Kent 

 a bye. a id so m.ade matters even between her and Antonio. 

 For the sake of complete equalitv we had Maid of Kent run 

 her bye heat under Mr. Penry ali?o. Mr. Penry, 1 will say, 

 has acted as .steward of our trials for three years, and is a 

 very good handler in private, so there can be no question of 

 his competence. But in his report tons he mentioned a 

 fact whose V)earing he did not himself perceive. 



Maid of Kent being a good retriever her handler shot and 

 killed birds at every opportunity, she retrieving. No less 

 than twelve were brought to bag in the bye heat. 



The iai(j<n'tantrest afforded by this change from galloping 

 and searching was not overlooked by the judges, and was 

 thought ^o be something of an offset to Antonio's advan- 

 tage.s. Now, as to the work in the final heat. 



Ar.toniowas surely handicapped by the illness of his 

 handler, Mr. Avent, who was suffering from grippe. About 

 an hour after the start one of the reporters got in front of 

 Mr. Avent in a narrow path; he wishing to pass and unable 

 to make his voice he°rd, struck the reporter iu the hack 

 \yith a cornstalk, at the end of which was a clod of earth. 



Shortly after, the dogs having passed through cockle 

 burs. Antonio got some under his legs and was pulling at 

 them with his teeth. Avent stooped over to help remove 

 the burs. At the moment I gave the order to move on the 

 reporter above mentioned charged on him suddenly and 

 dealt bim a swinging blow on the head with a large corn- 

 stalk having a heavy lump of clay on its roots. The blow 

 WHS so hard as almost to knock him down, and in his con- 

 dition, being quite sick with the grippe, it was near being 

 (Jecisi vi^ of the race. Avent remained dazed and stupid for 

 so:ne lime, and did not recover so as to handle with ordi- 

 nary skill or judgment in the rest of the beat. 



Although Avent was blamable in provoking the attack, 

 I felt it to be my duty to reprove the reporter, because I con- 

 sidered that he was there in the exercise of a public func- 

 tion and should have remembered that the interests of Mr. 

 Harris, the owner of Antonio, were jeopardized by this bit 

 of horse play. I will add that every proper apology was 

 made, and T wotild not brine ttp this affair it the heat could 

 be fairly undei-siocid without it. Its extreme importance 

 will be stfen when I explain that during the confusion Maid 

 of Kent went on without competition and found a bevy 

 which she pointed well. The location of this bevy was 

 known to the handlers, and there is no doubt Avent would 

 have sent bis dog there, too, had be not been interfered 

 with. Twelve minutes before the end of the heat Maid was 

 lost, and when found after time was called she was pointing 

 a rabbit. 



Meanwhile Antonio had finished strong, galloping well 

 and ranging wide. The only foundation for the report that 

 he was iuclined to quit was in the fact that he stopped be- 

 hind a l)nsh to eat some carrion, the halt only amounting to 

 about five seconds, he going on and continuing to hunt 

 when ordered. The dogs had ranged so wide and been sep- 

 arated so much that each judee saw only part of the worK. 

 On comyjariug notes and observations, the judges were tied 

 on the result of the heat and could make no award on it. 



The heat system as practiced from the beginning of the 

 Central Field Trials Club has required the judges to con- 

 sider the entire work of each dog throughout the stake. 



Therefore in a tie or a. very good heat the award is given 

 to tbo dog whose previous work is the best. (See Running 

 Piules, pagt'S, Rale 12.) "We were surprised and shocked 

 when one reporter who has been present at our succes.sive 

 trials and had copies of every edition of our rules, should 

 declare himself ignorant of this feature, and when it was 

 explained to him deny the propriety of applying it. In truth 

 we had no choice bnt to apply it unless we dispensed with 

 all scruples of conscience. 



Whettier it is a good I'ule or not is a different question. In 

 our summing up we found that Maid of Kent had pointed 

 one bevy the most, while Antonio bad a majority of one on 

 singles. She bad flushed two bevies that she had the best 

 of chances to point. He flushed one when absolutely pushed 

 on from his point by his handler. He made two false points 

 and pointed too often where birds had lately flushed. He 

 showed more fatigue than she, especiallj' at the beginning 

 of the last half hour, but freshened toward the last. She 

 went off her nose and passed right thi-ough the midst of 

 birds without owning scent; her pace was slower than his 

 and she showed less industry in tier work. She ran very 

 strong and ranged as far at the close as at the beginning. 

 Anvonio was lost three times duringtheheat bnt was always 

 found pointing birds in thick covert near the line of march, 

 not dropped to his point but standing. About half an hour 

 w^ould cover the total ti me he was lost. He showed great speed, 

 fine style and great industry in his work, and had good nose 

 all through. As faults are mostly mentioned above, the 

 linovession may arise that the work in general was poor. 

 Oil lije cantrary.it was brilliant beyond all ijrevious trials. 



The final heat v,'Rs better than "previous finals, and the 

 work of the two pointers was far better than even that of 

 winning setters in previous years. The heat between An- 

 tonio and Rip Rap was probably the finest ever run in field 

 trials. Any hour of it taken alone would make a brilliant 

 heat iu all-age stakes'. The advantage of Antoruo was 

 clear, and why his worK aroused no more enthusiasm is a 

 mystery to 3ne. 



On a previous day we had seen Count Eric do some re- 

 markable bird finding iu a sour, headstrong way, and all 

 were highly delighted, as was proper, for it was' truly a 

 great performance. But Antonio found as many bevies and 

 more singles, was tractable and obedient, as wide-ranging 

 fast dogs go, being surpassed in this by Paul Bo alone, of 

 all the fast setters we saw. His work was done more 

 cleanly, and his speed was greater. Wby, then, was he not 

 a favorite!' The dog has one fault, that a very plain and 

 utimistakablc one. He is inclined to point at too faint a. 

 sceaf. and consequently stops where birds have lately 

 flushed, or to the scent of small birds. However, he usually 

 corrects his own error if time is given. Tiiis fault was 

 made more prominent In the heat with Maid of Kent b^' the 

 injudicious work of his handler, wlio repeatedly stopped j 



him when he wanted to draw on and locate, and forced him 

 on when he was staunchly pointing, thus ruining his finest 

 opportunities for bird work. 



I think loo ujuch importance has been attached to this 

 fault. When a remarkable dog has one solitary and plainly 

 marked defect, however .slight 'it may be, he is apt to be put 

 below others who are inferior to him in everything else. In 

 my opinion this is wrorjg, and is the most crying evil of dog 

 judging and of criticisms on the same. Antonio did not re- 

 trieve, but this was scored against him and handicapped him 

 in another way, for tbe pointers were excellent retrievers 

 and their handlers shot birds which they retrieved, thus ob- 

 taining a rest from galloping. The judges were obliged to 

 order handlers to stop .shooting or the handicap would have 

 become too great. The services of a third judge were ur 

 gently needed. Mr, Churchill, who was to have been with 

 ns was prevented by very urgent biisiness which it was ex- 

 pected he Avould terminate in time for the Free For All. 

 When at the last we learned he could not, we made all pos- 

 sible effort to replace him, but found that serious objection 

 was made by one or other of the contestants to every person 

 whose services wei^ then and there obtainable. We had no 

 choice but to finish the work by our.selves, which we did to 

 the best of our ability with the 'result known. 



As a matter of opinion on the question of the relative 

 merit of the two breeds I will say that I think that if 

 enough pointers had started in the four hour race to make 

 their numbers equal that of the setters, their superior endur- 

 ance would surely have made one of them a winner. In a 

 short series the setters have the advantage from their quick- 

 ness on birds. At the end the pointers appeared little worse 

 for wear, while the setters Iwere more or less leg weary, 

 though neither Antonio nor Paul Bo were anywhere near 

 quitting. Still their ability to go on rnnning through a 

 longer series seemed doubtful, v/hile that of the pointers 

 did not. Reverting to the advantage Antonio mav have 

 secured iu the time his bye was run, 1 wish to explain that 

 the judges did not think that amounted to anything. Rip 

 Rap, who came down against him, had one day and two 

 nights rest, and in our belief was as fully restored as he ever 

 would be from the fatigue of one heat. Antonio had two 

 days and two nights and we did not think the extra time 

 was of any advantage to him, as he would have been fully 

 rested in twelve hom's less. Our deci.sion at the end as- 

 sumes that the heat between Maid of Kent and Antonio 

 was a tie, as also their bye heats, but that Antonio's work 

 against Rip Rap was better than Maid's against Chance. 



.1. M. TEAor. 



[Mr. Tracy's suggestion that the trial was affected by the 

 exchange of courtesies between Mr. Avent and one of the 

 reporters hardly merits serious comment. Bttt giving to 

 the incident the importance Mr. Tracy claims for it Ave 

 suggest that if the handler basted a reporter in the bact; 

 with a lump of dirt he invited a ba.sting in return, and so 

 was himself alone responsible for the effects of the encoun- 

 tei'. The business of a handler is to run his dog, not to 

 thump reporters; reporters are only human after all; if 

 thumped, they thump back again. But to find in this ridic- 

 ulous and trivial incident anything affecting the work of 

 the dogs or affording a basis for a decision of their merits 

 appears to us to be not less misleading than it is ingenious. 

 It reminds us of this little story told by Charles Dudley 

 Warner at the Author's Club the other night: 



"There was once a robber in Cairo who fell from the second 

 story of a honse he was trying to enter and broke hisleg. He went 

 to the cadi and camplained. The man's window was badly ina<1c 

 and he wanted juBtice. The cadi said that was Teaaonable, anil he 

 summoned the owner of the hou.^e. Tne owner confessed that the 

 bouse was poorly huill, bat claimed (hat the carpenter AVaa to 

 blame, and not he. Thi^ struck the cadi as sound logic n.od he 

 sent for the carpenter. 'The charge Is, alas, too true,' said the 

 carpenter, 'but tbe masonry was at faiiU and I couldn't lit a good 

 window.' So tiie cadi, impre.ssed with the reai^onableness of 

 the argument, sent for the mason. The mason pleaded 

 guilty, but explained that a pretty girl in a blue gown 

 had passed the building while he was at work, and that 

 his attention had b«en diverted from his work. The cadi 

 thereupon demanded that the girl be t>rought before him. 'It i;< 

 true,' she said, 'that I am pretty, but it's no fault, of mine. If my 

 gown attra.cied the mason, the dyer should he punished, and not 

 J.' 'Quite true,' said the cadi, 'send for the dyer.' The dyer was 

 brought to the bar and pleaded guilty. That settled it. The cadi 

 told the robber to take the guUty wretch to his hoiise and hang 

 him from the door-sill, and the populace rejoiced that Justice nu'l 

 been done. But pretty soon the crowd returned to the cudi's 

 house, complaining that the dyer was too long to be properly 

 hanged from his door-sill. 'Oh, well,' said the cadi, who by that 

 time was fcufForing ennui, 'go find a short dyer and hang him. 

 .justice shall pre vail.' "] 



GLOVERSVILLE DOC SHOW. 



" A WFUL muddle — judging does not commence till Wed- 

 J\. nesday.— P.," reads the special to PoKEST And 

 Stream on the opening of the &loversville show. Accord- 

 ing to the catalogue there were 100 entries. Mastiffs and St. 

 Bernards are chiefly locals. Grreyhounds have Spinaway in 

 the challenge class. Foxhounds' are local. Pointers show 

 up well with Mr. Hyland's well-known winners. Sir Fred- 

 erick, of the Seminole Kennels, will take care of the English 

 setter division. This same kennel also show their noted 

 Ii'ish setters, and Mr. Blossom is on deck with his well- 

 known team of Gordons. There are five native setters en- 

 tered. Cocker spaniels are good with Mr. Bell's and Mr. 

 Browning's entries, others are from local fanciers. Semi- 

 nole Kennels take care of the collie classes with their well- 

 known dogs, and Dr. Sneden's Winning Wagtail is one of 

 the two bull-terriers. The Rockland Kennels and Mr. Zim- 

 mer's entries till the beagle classes. In fox-terriers, Wood- 

 ale Kennels with live entries and Wilton Kennels and Clai-- 

 ence Rathbone's Avell-known dogs will make competition 

 interesting. Several well-known pugs are entered. Mr. 

 Ru.ssell's noted Bedlingtons fill three classes, and Pat Mur- 

 phy is the only Irish terrier repre,sentative. There is also a 

 show of poultry with 477 entries. 



VALUABLE SETTER IMPORTATIONS.— Bridgeport, 

 Conn.— Editor Forest and Stream: I received by s.s. Cir- 

 cassia, Dec. ir), the English setters Devon Shot and Devon 

 Daisy from the kennels of John Lee Bulled, North Devon, 

 England. The dog is iJyrs. old this month, weighs about 

 40lbs,, has a magnificent evenly marked black and tan head 

 and solid blue belton body. He is a very rangy built dog 

 with the cleanest of necks set on to good shoulders, well 

 arched loin, strong hindquarters and excellent legs and feet; 

 in fact, his general make ui) iy so different from the type of 

 English setter that have been imported of late that 1 was 

 agreeably surprised and felt like asking if he had not come 

 from Tennessee, the home of our field trial setters, instead 

 of the laud of roast beef and plum pudding. He goes with 

 me on a hunt this week, and I'll let the public see him in 

 New York in February. In breediug he is by Bang IV. (ch. 

 Sir Allister— Belle ot Furness); dam, Queen Bess (ch. Sir 

 Al lister— Beauty Queen), she by Fletcher Roek out of Flash 

 11. Devon Ddisy, 18mos,, is a small white bitch, black ptitch 

 over each eye, black ears and one spot on back: she is a very 

 handsome little bitch, excellently put up for work, which 

 she has demonstrated to me already she can do, but will have 

 to be controlled more for our hunting as she is a very fast 

 and wide ranger, and is at work every mc-ment in the field. 

 She is a pure Laverack, sire Topp: dam, JUadj' Babb; Topp 

 (Monk of Furness— Bridford Sybil), she by Count Howard- 

 Princess Ada Lady Babb isby Prince of Welt&—PortonMis.s, 

 by Beau of Bull— SnuQ:, by Bine Prince— Old Kate, and as 

 Mr, Bn lied say.-, is extra v.i'iuable because of her Blue Prince 

 and Tam O'rihanter bl'iod which .^he runs to on all sides of 

 her pedigree. She is in whelp to Devon Shot, being bred at 

 Mr. BuUed's sugsrestiou a Aveek before she sailed.- J am£S 

 E. HAIB., V.S, ' I 



PSOVOI. 



WE have seen a very interesting letter on the Psovoi, 

 which term we shall henceforth use instead of Bai-zoi, 

 that this Russian authority says has no meaning in the light 

 that we have accepted it. Some time since we spoke of the 

 functions of the Psovoi dog in Russian coursing, namely to 

 .simply corrrse the wolf after being made to break cover by 

 the pack trained for that purpose and which must not leave 

 the edge of the cover, but as soon as the wolf gets away must 

 return to work agam and put up another. We fliid this 

 Russian says the essential points to all Psovoi dogs are (!) ' 'a 

 very large, full and dark eye: in fact, the gazelle eye. 

 A long, narrow and perfectly lean head without any break 

 in the line of the profile. (3) Ears placed far liehind, small 

 and oA'^erlapping on the back of the neckj easily cocked, and 

 then presenting the appearance shown in the portrait of Mr. 

 Vysheslavtseft"'s dog in the iS7ioof m(/ Times. (4) Paw close; 

 compact and oval-footed— by no means rottnd, (S) A deep-, 

 narrow chest, reaching below the elhoAA^s. (0) A pOAvel'ful 

 loin and .stern. (T) A tail richly hung on the lower side; 

 sci miter-shaped and soiiiewhat longer than the knee joints.'' 

 In another letter this gentleman gives some interesting 

 infofmation regarding Mr, Hacke's recent importationsi 

 which were said to have come from the (xrand Duke George 

 Mikhailovitch's kennels, owing to that gentleman's being 

 temporarily under the cloud of the Czar's, his cousin, dis- 

 pleasure for marrying a maid of honor of his late mother. 

 Now as to this leading to any disposition of his kennel is 

 said to be untrue, for the Czar personally and many of the 

 Imperial family own grand coursing hounds, hut to procure 

 even a pup of them, except through a special favor in the 

 shape of a present, is a thing .simply rinheard of. ihey af'e 

 never sold , and this is giVen as a fact. And the simple idea 

 of this appears monstrously absurd to any one who has the 

 slightest notion of how things go in Russsia. Generally 

 tite selection of pups from the litters is an affair personally 

 attended to by the Imperial owners, and the pups fotmd de- 

 fective are ordered to be destroyed. The kennel servants, 

 however, often sell these defective pups on the sly or in lact 

 any pups, as whelped by the Imperial bitches, for, of course, 

 there are many who want to get, at any price, a pup bred In 

 the Imperial kennels, or at least reputed to be sUcb. All 

 this goes to show the lot furnished by Mr. Rousseau to be a 

 doubtfnlly acijuired one, and though this gentleman is in 

 touch with the dogAVorldof Russia it is only recently, On 

 receiving a letter from America, that he had heard of Mr. 

 Rousseau. 



We are told further that the animosity existing between 

 the leading breeders of Rnssiaa coursing hounds is a source 

 of great annoyance to most Russian sportsineu. They ha ve 

 but one breeder who breeds for sale, a Mr. Karieff. and 

 baa among his dogs descendants of Naiar, and this gentle- 

 man has very much influenced the getting up of the'~stand- 

 ard. The real strong points of this gentleman's breed are 

 coat, ears, size, pasterns, tail and a great speed for short 

 distances (characteristic of the northern Russian cour.sio'i 

 bound, together Avith great pluck and a wonderful "fling." 

 The back is said to be A^ery bony and poor in mu'^cle, which 

 gives rise to the nickna'me given totheKarnff breed of 

 "Sturgeons of the Psovoi l.'reed.'' 



Then there is another leader with another type, Mr. flal- 

 dareii, an acknowledged leader of a more numerotls section 

 of coursing Qien. He is a well known judge and thinks tbe 

 reproduction of the old types quite impossible and his ideals 

 are called the ErmolotI dogs, AA'ho are descendants of the 

 old Machevarianoff dogs, of which the dogs Serdectimgi and 

 Kara are good examples, both bred in Mr. Brmoloff''s ken- 

 nels, and which Mr. KaiTeff' wants disqualified owing to 

 their having Oriental blood in their veins. Mr. Machevari- 

 anoff', the authority on Russian coitrsing, and who died 

 some thirty years ago, it seems, mixed some Cattcassian 

 coursing blood in his breed to give them better eyes and last- 

 ing power, for the old dogs, bred for coursing bn short in- 

 tervals, between great tracts of forest, Avere and are verj' 

 fleet on distances not exceeding 700 to SOOyd.s., but beyond 

 this distance they cannot run. 



This shows the dift'erent positions of the leading coursing 

 hound "amateurs" of Russia. The Ermoloff — JiJacbevari- 

 auofi' dogs' good points are ''a graceful and slim build, 

 head.s, eyes and paAVS." Thus It would require both Kari'' 

 eir and Ermoloff stud dogs to constitute a good Russian 

 coursing hound kennel. This Russian says, according to 

 drawings, that Elsie's head was decidedly superior to Kri- 

 Intt's, and on the o(ber baud neither Krilutt, ZIoeem, or in 

 fact any of the Russian conr.sing hounds in America whose 

 portraits he has seen can be qualified as even second-class 

 specimens, the heads being particularly defective. Argos is 

 said to be a very valuable sire owing to his good head and 

 hindquarters. On the (jupstion of color he .says that black 

 must be considered a defect in the Karieff type which were 

 bred from the old type without any admixture, and the 

 original colors of these dogs were gray, cream, and reel 

 (rather roan), and even red was considered by some as a 

 defect. The Marchevarianoff, and subsequently the Ermo- 

 loff dogs, haA^e inherited black from the Cancassian sirea 

 alluded to above, and consfquently owing to the difference 

 of opinion, Mr. Chybysheff, one judge who believes in the 

 Karieff type, disqualifies for black, Avhile Mr. Baldaroff, 

 another equally^ good judge, does not, as he believes in the 

 Ermoloff' straiu. As there is an absence of any relialde 

 Kennel Club stud !>ook. the identification of certain sires is 

 very ditbcult, but the wide interest now being developeil in 

 these PjoA'^oi dogs all over the world will no doubt spur the 

 Russians to take some definite action in regard to keeping 

 proper records o t the breed . 



DOME-SHAPED SKULLS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I saw in a' our paper some time .since an article from the 

 pen of the Rev. Robert O'Callahan on "Irish setter type," 

 and amongthe many good suggestions as to importing Irish 

 setter.^, etc., there was a statement like this: "Tlie pure 

 bred Irish setter should above all else have a dome-shaped 

 skull." Now, acknowledging the reverend gentleman to 

 be an authority in Irish .setter matters, I vv'ould ask, as a 

 breeder, does the expression "dome shaped" convey the ides, 

 of foi'm most desirable in the Irish setter skull, and should 

 this be our aim or standard in breeding.- 



A dome-shaped skull, as I understand it, is one rising in 

 all directions and having its highest point about mid-\v.-y 

 from eyebrow to occiput, an illustration of which we see tu 

 Mr. Scanlan's Inchiquin and to which that of Desmond II. 

 also approaches. Should not an Irish setter skull rather b" 

 more of the folloAviug form':' Prom a muzzle square at ttsi- 

 end and of good length, ri.sing sharply under v,'ell rais d 

 ej^ebrows to a point about one-third the di.stance from eye- 

 brows to occiput, thereby forming a strong stop, thence with 

 a slight but gradual rise to occiput, where it falls rather 

 abruptly to a well-shaped neck. Such a skull has in profile 

 a rather long appearance as of a flattened oval, and from a 

 rear view an oval outline. This skull I believe is similar tfi 

 that found in such dogs as champions Elcho, Jr., Glencho, 

 Tim and many others of the Elcbo strain. I make no pie 

 tensions to authority, but in studying the breed it has cc 

 cured to me that the peculiar shape of the skull is a very 

 important matter to those Avho would breed succestfidl.\ = 

 for herein lies one of the strong points of character and out- 

 on which l:he A'arious authorities and standards are com- 

 paratively silenL Redstone. 



Names and Poktuaxts op Birds, by (lurdon Trumbull. A 

 book particularly iatereating to gunners, for by its use they can 

 identify without question all the American game birds which 

 they may kllL OlQfch, ^ pageg* Drice §3.60. For said by Fo^ST 



