SPORTING SPANIELS 
retrieve a hare does not want a cocker at all. He should have a springer 
or a field spaniel of the leggy order. 
In conclusion I should like to reproduce a description of a spaniel and 
his work given in the “ Sporting Dictionary and Rural Repository,” 
published more than a hundred years ago. Here is a tribute to which the 
spaniel is as fully entitled now as he was then: 
“ They are indefatigable in their exertions. From the time they are 
thrown off in the pursuit of game the tail is in a perpetual motion 
(called feathering) by the increased vibration of which an experienced 
sportsman knows when he gets near the object of attraction. The 
nearer he approaches it, the more violent he becomes in his endeavours 
to succeed; tremulative whimpers escape him as a matter of doubt; 
but the moment that doubt is dispelled his clamorous raptures break 
forth in full confirmation of the gratification he receives. And this 
proclamation may be so firmly relied on (though in the midst of 
thickest covert) that the happy owner may exultantly boast he is in 
the possession of one faithful domestic who never tells a lie.” 
WALTER BAXENDALE. 
255 
