July U, 1892,] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



SI 



COLOR. TYPE AND RETRIJEVING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It did me lots of good to read Capt. Pat Henry's sensible 

 article in the last issue of a contemporary. The idiot's 

 course that iias been more or less in vcgue to cull out all 

 colors but black, white and tau for several years past, 

 deserves to be severely condprnned by all breeders who have 

 a desire to improve the field quality of our setters. What 

 figure color cut?, I cannot see; and when compared to field 

 quality is of no more importance than coat. 



Since Mr. Llewellin said his say on the color question, T 

 have heard of several breeders saying that they bave been 

 right there all the time; yet, only a few years ajjo, one of 

 these same parties was the worst color crank I ever talked 

 to. Why! he could not see any good iu a lemon and white 

 at all, no matter if their work was deserving of the highest 

 admiration. 



My old friend "Pious Jeems" and myself have had many 

 an argument on that question, but I have always stood firm 

 on the basis of Capt. Pat Henry's logical illusti-ation of 

 Jersey cattle color. Tbere you have it. Color cranks tried 

 to side-track the breed, and might have done so if one 

 sensible man had not pulled the switch and sent them right 

 through on the main Hue again. 



By the way, that iliastration will knock the support 

 "galley west" from under those who maintain that the field- 

 trial dog is differently put up from the field dog, or that 

 there can be a difference. 



We want the field dog for his field qualities, same as the 

 Jersey cattle for their butter qualities, and whenever the 

 field trial dog is ackuowledged not afield dog, the field trials^ 

 have done our pointer and setters more harm than they ever 

 have done good. 



But. speaking of breeding, it makes me smile when I 

 think of H. S. Sevan's article headed "Eoglish Setter 

 Type," in a contemporary, not so much because he says 

 nothing about type of any kind except to mention what Dr. 

 Rowe said of old Gladstone, 

 and the type he is pleased to 

 call the Tennessee. Look out, 

 friend Bevan, and don't jump 

 your "Tennessee setter" on us 

 quite yet. "Tennessee type!" 

 That ainuses me. 



Take Mr. Sevan's partial list 

 — Gath, Roderigo, Gath'sHope, 

 Daisy P., Chance, Jean Val 

 .Jean", Rowdy Rod, Antonio, 

 Lady C, Gladstone's Boy, 

 Sportsman. This is not all, 

 but enough. Take this list, 

 and show me a type. Big- 

 boued, sway-backed Sportsman 

 won't t.vpe with .Jean Val 

 Jean, whose hips are two inches 

 lower than his shoulders. 



Daisy P. won't type with 

 delicate Lady C; Gath's Mark; 

 and Gath's Hope will hardly 

 show the typical form of 

 Rowdy Rod or Toledo Blade, 

 the two last ditSering as widely 

 from each other in type as they 

 do from the two first, etc. 



Now, wher'% Mr. Bevan, is 

 your vaunted Tennessee type? 



Then again, two Tennessee 

 dogs, Gath and Roderigo, were 

 sired by Count Noble; Jean 

 Val Jean by Mingo, so rightly 

 only the credit of breeding 



them belongs to Tennessee. Tennessee got in on the 

 "ground floor" in this "dog business," and has bred more 

 dogs and has more practical men breeding dogs than any 

 other State in the Union. 



But, Mr. Bevan, you have no type any more than Ohio 

 has an Ohio type; Indiana an Indiana type, etc. 



And, Mr. Bevan, the very type of do§s you condemn, you 

 mention in your partial list as dogs of Tennessee type as 

 wonderful how many dogs have been bred in Tennessee or 

 its vicinity. 



I note that the question of retrieving at field trials has 

 about lost its interest. The "anti-retrievers" have the 

 Eastern and Central trials solid. I see some bave claimed 

 that retrieving has a tendency to make a dog low-headed. I 

 do not thiuk so. I hnve always practiced a system of teach- 

 ing my dogs to retrieve in the kennel, birt not allowing 

 them to retrieve in the field until they pointed staunchly, 

 were steady to wing and shot, and obedient. With the 

 amount of experience a dog would acquire in getting this 

 far along, he would have become confirmed in his method 

 of carrying his head, and the mere act of hunting a dead 

 bird would have no influence on his carriage of head. I 

 have seen many dogs that did not retrieve that carried low 

 heads; and all the dogs that I know anything about per.son- 

 ally that carry low heads and retrieve did so before being 

 taught. 



Only last winter I had a bitch that the only trouble in her 

 retrieving was that she carried too high a head, and the 

 runners nearly always escaped her in the grass, and my ob- 

 servation has'been that, in the field trials, instead of low- 

 headed retrievers, the opposite has been the case. The dog 

 is told to retrieve, and he gofs with his head up, like a shot, 

 after the flushed birds. The handler gets him back and the 

 dog hunts about with high head, and his handler gets 

 nearer and nearer the birds, working his dos back and 

 forth across wind until it finally strikes the scent, finds the 

 bird and retrieves it. Of course, there are dogs that mark 

 the dead bird when it falls, and go directly to it and get it. 

 In either case there is an absence of low beads. There are 

 few retrievers of good judgment but that can tell the 

 difl:erence between a live, a wounded, or a dead bird. Those 

 who have ever experimented with a dog of any experience, 

 with a cripple bird, by trying to get it to point, may recollect 

 how unfruitful in points the experiment was. 



The old way at field trials of throwing out a dead bird and 

 shooting off the gun for a retrieve came as near showing the 

 kind of a i-etriever a dog was as throwing out a ball would. 

 I have had dogs that would retrieve a bird that way every 

 time, but would not touch a bird on the ground until it 

 had been handled. 



That system was just as practical as a party I once knew, 

 rwho made a practice of going to the market and bujdng a 

 snipe before goins: out to look at a dog he intended to buy, 

 and putting the bird in a pocket to test the dog's nose. If 

 the dog was friendly inclined and came and smelled him, as 

 dogs frequently do a stranger, he became a firm believer in 

 the quality of that dog's nose. If the dog paid no attention 

 to him, he held the opinion that the dog could not smell 

 tar. I have noticed that a good, level-headed dog, with lots 

 of experience, which retrieves, acts altogether ditJerently on 

 a wounded bird when the birds were shot at than on one 

 which was slightly wounded and made a long flight. The 

 dog expects to""flnd a dead or wounded bird when the birds 

 are flushed and shot, and pounces on the cripples with 

 confidence unmistakable; but when he comes on to a cripple 

 that has flown off when the dog knows there should be no 

 dead birds, he often makes a hesitating point for an instant 

 before being apparently satisfied that the bird is wounded, 

 and then dashes iu and gets it. 



The main reason that retrieving is less thought of among 

 the handlers i? that most of them do not shoot many birds 

 , over dogs in their preparatory work; the dog's work being 

 sharper without' it, All hamuers aim to produce a dog that 



will range and hunt just outside of its competitor, if within 

 the bounds of possibility. Therefore, when a gun is fired 

 and no bird is killed, a handler doesn't want his dog to stop 

 in a long cast to look the ground out for "dead birds," but 

 to hustle tor the live ones. I could not help contrasting the 

 Derby last year at High Point with a memorable one I 

 recollect about .seven years ago. In the one I have in 

 mind were Bob Gates, G.ath's Mark, Gath's Hope and other 

 good ones. In the heat between Gath's Mark and Bob 

 Gates, iu the timber where a number of birds had been 

 scattered, it seems to me they made more points than were 

 made in the entire first series of the Eastern Derby last 

 year. 



I was glad the quality of the Southern Derby was good, 

 as I have remarked a falling oft" in quality of the puppies 

 each year now for several years past. Speaking of falling 

 off, what has struck me more than anything in this line is 

 the falling oft' in attendance. Compare the number of 

 spectators at the last trials at High Point with those at the 

 same trials of 1883. Then they had a crowd of .sportsmen 

 gathered together, all bent on having a good time and a 

 friendly contest. Each had a dog entered and was anxious 

 to have the best dog for field-shooting win. The last meet- 

 ing I noticed was composed principally of handlers, judges 

 and reporters. 



Why is this? I think it is owing to several reasons. 



First— Because the honor of winning is now secondary to 

 the purse. 



Second— Because all were then out with the idea that the 

 dog whose work showed the quality of the superior field dog 

 was the best dog. All were more or less practical shooters, 

 and as such knewwhat qualities a first-class field dogshould 

 have. The trials were conducted on these lines, and every 

 one understood and was interested. But now, let a practi- 

 cal man who has shot for years go to atrial and advance 

 some of the ideas he has acquired by actual experience in the 

 field, and he will be smiled on pityingly and told that his 



PUPPYISM. 



A puppy may look as wise as an old dog, but he don't always know as much. 



ideas'wiirdo]forl"plug shooting dogs," but 'not for "high 

 class field trial dogs." He sees dogs hunt without regard to 

 gun or whistle. He hears these dogs extolled to the skies 

 for their pace and range. He sees them on game miss more 

 opportunities to point than they take advantage of. He 

 pictures in his own mind himself trying to shoot over one of 

 these dogs in the small fields and brush where he and old 

 Dash have put in so many pleasant days and had satisfac- 

 tory bags, and he shakes his head as he l;hinks how impossi- 

 ble such a thing would be. Busine=!s calls him home by the 

 next train and the field trials know him no more. 



While it is necessary to keep the crowds at field trials 

 where they will not interfere with the work of the dogs, yet 

 field trials should be made as interesting as possible to all 

 spectators who attend. The pleasure of a field trial are 

 much increased by a large attendance of jovial spirits, and 

 the entertaining chats that take place in the evenines after 

 the day's work are full of pleasant recollections of the good 

 old times that fallowed the trials in days gone by. 



Ckoakkr. 



THE PEARL OF PEKIN PROTEST. 



Editor Forest and Stream.: 



I notice a letter in your paper, June 30, fi-om Mr. T. W. 

 Bartels, asking for information respecting the decision ar- 

 rived at by the executive committee of the American Cours- 

 ing Club on the Pearl of Pekin protest. I thought Mr. 

 Bartels understood the decision of the majority of the ex- 

 ecutive committee — Dr. Shaw and Mr. C. G. Page — for their 

 decision appeared plain enough in the American Field ot 

 April 23, and the reason given why they had made this de- 

 cision. 



It appears that both Dr. Shaw, who is one of the executive 

 committee, and Mr. Ira Brougher, the secretary of the club, 

 made an affidavit that in their presence Mr. T. W. Bartels 

 had agreed to an arrangement with Mr. Edmonds, the owner 

 of Chicopee Lass, to settle the dilflculty between them, so 

 the majority of the executive committee under the circum- 

 stances considered it best to refer the protest back to the 

 club. 



As far as I am concerned in the case, as one of the execu- 

 tive committee, as Mr. Bartels thinks fit to quote remarks 

 from a private letter, I may say that I made no secret of my 

 decision, which was in favor of Pearl of Pekin, and I was 

 simply guided in this decision by the coursing rule ex- 

 nressly laid down to meet such an emergency. 



H. C. Lowe. 



LiAWRBNCE, Kan. 



POINTS AND FLUSHES. 



Chicaoo, 111., July 9.— The World's Pair management is 

 busily engaged in arranging the preparatory routine details. 

 There is, however, nothing new which is interesting to dog 

 owners. 



The recognition of the Canadian Kennel Club Stud Book 

 by the bench show managers was a move in the right direc- 

 tion, for it is fair to presume that their regi. strati on is at 

 least quite as correct as that of the American Kennel Club 

 Stud Book. Moreover, it is the recognized registration of a 

 large and prosperous country, and is entitled to recognition 

 for this rea.sou alone. 



In regard to the registrations in stud books, it would seem 

 to be a necessity that all errors should be corrected in the 

 interest of dog fanciers at large, and a duty which should 

 be promptly performed by those having the publication in 

 charge. Volume II. of the A. K. C. Stud Book contains a 

 number of errors. In Irish .setters there are several regis- 

 tered as Irish .setters, the dam of which was a coal black 

 native English setter of short pedigree. There are also 

 erroneous pedigrees, as in the case of Gath and others. Some 

 dogs, erroneously registered, are re-registered in later vol- 

 umes, while other registrations remain as originally and 

 erroneously published. 



The re-registration of a dog for the purpose of correcting 

 an error in the original registration, accomplishes the pur- 

 pose only in part, when there is no reference in the original 

 registration to the error or the later correction of it. A 

 reader can not possibly know that a registration is erroneous 

 or that it is correctly registered in a later volume if the fact is 

 not stated in counection with the registration. For these 

 important reasons earlier volumes of the Stud Book .should 

 undergo a thorough revision, and printed slips should be 

 inserted in each one, correcting erroneous pedigrees or 

 giving information in regard to where the correct pedigi-ee 

 can be found. I was conversing recently with a gentleman 

 who is thoroughly "posted in 

 kennel matters, and he inci- 

 dentally mentioned the small 

 • value of a registration of 



which the pedigree contained 

 a few common proper names. 

 For instance, John Smith's 

 dog Bob might be registered 

 as being by Dick out of Sal, 

 she by Jack out of Moll; 

 Dick, by Tom out of Nell, etc. 

 Of what value is such a regis- 

 tration to a breeder ten years 

 hence? The pedigree may be 

 correct, but as a record it has 

 little value. The information 

 is too meagre and vague. Out 

 of the multitude of dogs hav 

 ing such common names the 

 question of identity is most 

 puzzliDg. Whose Dick? Whose 

 Sal? Whose .Jack? Whose Nell? 

 These are questions which now 

 occur to any one having much 

 to do with ppdigrees and the 

 stud book. To make a regis- 

 tration or practical value to 

 those who purchase the .stud 

 book as well as those who 

 register their dogs, full infor- 

 mation should be required of 

 owners who register as to the 

 owner and breeder of each 

 parent in a pedigree, excepting 

 where parents can be referred to by number in the stud book, 

 which reference would accomplish the same purpose. This 

 information would be available in later years to identify 

 every Jack, Tom, Nell, Dick, etc., beside reducing the oppor- 

 tunities of fraudulent entry, which such loose requirements 

 as at present obtain can not guard against. If this were 

 enforced it might entail more labor and expense; but as the 

 publication of a correct and useful stud book is one of the 

 chief ends of the A. K. C, the added labor and expense 

 would be most profitably incurred. As there is a fairly good 

 sum in the tremsui-y, probably, if more extensive informa- 

 tion were given, it could be done without any added expense 

 to owners. 



Death of a Noted Collie. 



Last week we had a visit from Mrs. Smyth, owner of the 

 Swiss Mountain Kennels, and while she reported all well at 

 her own place, we were very sorry to hear that Mr. Jarrett, 

 owner of the Chestnut Hill Kennels, had sustained a severe 

 loss in the death of his beautiful collie bitch Roslyn Dolly, 

 which was worried bj^ a mastiff boarding in the kennel. 

 Though small, this bitch probably showed more intense 

 collie quality than anything yet seen on our benches, but as 

 a practical sheepdog she was rather too much on the bric-a- 

 brac order. She was about two years old and had whelped 

 only a week before her death a fine litter by Wellesbourne 

 Charley, and these are living yet. Dolly was not shown ex- 

 tensively but in her short career she was most successful, 

 beating among others the hitherto invincible Flurry II. 

 Dolly was by Christopher out of Roslyn Torfrida. We hope 

 that her last litter may console Mr. Jarrett for his heavy loss. 

 Dolly had one litter previously by the English dog Gladdie, 

 to whom she wqs sent during la.st summer. 



I was pleased to notice the election of Mr. E, Knight 

 Sperry. of New Haven, Conn., to the secretaryship of the 

 New England Field Trial Club, and I believe that the club 

 acted wisely in selecting him for the responsible position. 

 Mr. Sperry'is an earnest, enthusiastic sportsman, thoroughly 

 interested in the welfare of his club and the improvement of 

 the dog, and firm in the faith that a successful trial can be 

 held and established in New England, in all of which he is 

 perfectly sound. So I am informed that the honor came to 

 him unsought {in fact, without his knowledge till after his 

 election): the mark of confidence and esteem of his fellow 

 members must have been most gratifying to him, although 

 the office, so far as any profit is concerned, is only in the 

 satisfaction of knowing that a good work was done and a 

 good cause helped along. There is no money in it. There 

 is, however, hard work and some expense. I shall look for- 

 ward to a most successful trial in New England this fall, 

 as the result of Mr. Sperry's popularity, skilful work and 

 support of his efforts. 



The time for giving pointers and setters their yard train- 

 ing is nowhere. Amateurs should not overlook the fact 

 that morning and evening, the coolest parts of the day, are 

 the best. The lessons should be given with deliberation 

 and kindness, as hurry or severity is certain to make the 

 dog nervous, or else he becomes overheated. In either case 

 he is not in the best state to receive his lessons. But little 

 can be accomplished in attempting to teach in the warm 

 parts of the day. The dogs become too heated to pay any 

 attention to the tutor and suffer much discomfort. A good 

 run after the lessons and kind treatment at all times will 

 permanently gain the affections of the youngsters, and if 

 properly encouraged they will not look upon the lessons as 

 something to be avoided. B. Water.s. 



Terrier Importations. 



Me. Stmonds, of Salem, Mass., and his henchma,n, George 

 Thomas, not content with running an already crowded ken- 

 nel, are, like that well-known charity boy, still crying for 

 more. The steamship Tauric brings another batch of dogs 

 in charge of Harry Pinder— four Scotch terriers and a York- 

 shire. The latter is— well, a dandy— so says our informant, 

 especially if his price is any criterion. It has been imported 

 for Miss Rotch, of Bar Harbor, Me., but unfortunately will 

 probably not be shown. The terriers from the "land o' 

 cakes" are brothers and sisters of Scotch Hot, which was 

 spen out at the shows this spring. They are Highland Roy, 

 Scotch Cold and Gip?ey Yet, by Gipsey King out of Kelvoir 

 and running back to the best blood of the breed. Then there 

 is the bitch Norwich Mouse by champion Alister out of 

 Ashley Kate. It will be therefore seen that this kennel will 

 make a strong bid for honors in this game breed. The fox- 

 terrier Ebor Spendthrift and black and tan Beaconsfleld 

 won in the challenge classes of these respectiye breeds at the 

 Sheffield, England, show the other day. 



