UPLAND SHOOTING. 
325 
sometimes suspected a Spaniel cross. A chocolate-colored nose 
I look upon as very suspicious, and a flesh-colored, or white 
nose, I think indicative of softness of constitution. 
The Irish Setter is either pure red, or red and white, or 
yellow and white spotted. His nose, lips, and palate, are inva¬ 
riably black. His coat is somewhat more wiry, and his frame 
more bony and muscular than the English dog. He is the har¬ 
diest and most dauntless of the race, and, though apt to be some¬ 
what unmanageable and headstrong, if he is sufficiently worked, 
and managed with a tight hand, these faults can be kept down, 
while his indomitable pluck, his rapidity, his perseverance, and 
his dash, render him, in my opinion, for the real hard-working 
sportsman, preferable to his English brother. 
The Scotch and Welsh Setters are in no respect distinct 
varieties, and only differ from the English, as being inferior in 
purity of blood. The Irish dog is undoubtedly the original type 
of the Setter in Great Britain. 
The Russian Setter is, however, clearly a distinct variety; 
and it is a little remarkable that this race has never been des¬ 
cribed in any American work, and that Mr. Youatt, and his 
editor, Dr. Lewis, seem to be alike unaware of its existence. 
It is rather taller than the English dog, and is very muscular 
and bony. The head is very much shorter and rounder than 
that of any other Setter, and is covered with such a fleece of 
coarse woolly hair, that unless it is clipped away from the brows, 
the animal can scarcely see. The whole body is covered by a 
coat of long, thick, woolly fleece, hanging in elf-locks knotted 
together, of many inches in length, as curly, though six times as 
long, as those of the Water Poodle. Its olfactory powers are 
of the very highest order, its docility and sagacity unequalled, 
and its courage in facing briars or water, its endurance of cold 
and fatigue, are such as to entitle it, in my opinion, to the first 
place of the whole race. It makes an admirable retriever, and 
would, I think, suit this country beyond any dog with which 
I am acquainted, though I have never seen one in America. It 
is less handsome than the English and Irish breeds, but its qua- 
