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134 DOGS AND ALL ABOUT THEM

Field Trial Challenge Cup, for competition amongst its members, besides having liberally supported all the leading shows ; hence it has rightly come to be regarded as the only authority from which an acceptable and official dictum for the guidance of others can emanate.

The following is the standard of points issued by the English Setter Club:

Head-The head should be long and lean, with well-defined stop. The skull oval from ear to ear, showing plenty of brain room, and with a well-defined occipital protuberance. The muzzle moderately deep and fairly square ; from the stop to the point of the nose should be long, the nostrils wide, and the jaws of nearly equal length ; flews not too pendulous. The colour of the nose should be black, or dark, or light liver, according to the colour of the coat. The eyes should be bright, mild, and intelligent, and of a dark hazel colour, the darker the better. The ears of moderate length, set on low and hanging in neat folds close to the cheek ; the tip should be velvety, the upper part clothed with fine silky hair. Neck-The neck should be rather long, muscular, and lean, slightly arched at the crest, and clean cut where it joins the head ; towards the shoulder it should be larger, and very muscular, not throaty with any pendulosity below the throat, but elegant and bloodlike in appearance. Body-The body should be of moderate length, with shoulders well set back or oblique ; back short and level ; loins wide, slightly arched, strong and muscular. Chest deep in the brisket, with good round widely-sprung ribs, deep in the back ribs-that is, well ribbed up. Legs and Feet-The stifles should be well bent and ragged, thighs long from hip to hock. The forearm big and very muscular, the elbow well let down. Pasterns short, muscular, and straight. The feet very close and compact, and well protected by hair between the toes. Tail-The tail should be set on almost in a line with the back ; medium length, not curly or ropy, to be slightly curved or scimitarshaped, but with no tendency to turn upwards ; the flag or feather hanging in long, pendant flakes ; the feather should not commence at the root, but slightly below, and increase in length to the middle, then gradually taper off towards the end ; and the hair long, bright, soft and silky, wavy but not curly. Coat and Feathering-The coat from the back of the head in a line with the ears ought to be slightly wavy, long, and silky, which should be the case with the coat generally ; the breeches and fore-legs, nearly down to the feet, should be well feathered. Colour and Markings-The colour may be either black and white, lemon and white, liver and white, or tricolour-that is, black, white, and tan ; those without heavy patches of colour on the body, but flecked all over preferred.


II. THE IRISH SETTER.-Though this variety has not attained such popularity as its English cousin, it is not because it is regarded as being less pleasing to the eye, for in general

THE SETTERS 135

appearance of style and outline there is very little difference ; in fact, none, if the chiselling of the head and colour of the coat be excepted. The beautiful rich golden, chestnut colour which predominates in all well-bred specimens is in itself sufficient to account for the great favour in which they are regarded generally, while their disposition is sufficiently engaging to attract the attention of those who desire to have a moderate-sized dog as a companion, rather than either a very large or very small one. Probably this accounts for so many lady exhibitors in England preferring them to the other varieties of Setters. We have to go over to its native country, however, to find the breed most highly esteemed as a sporting dog for actual work, and there it is naturally first favourite ; in fact, very few of either of the other varieties are to be met with from one end of the Green Isle to the other. It has been suggested that all Irish Setters are too headstrong to make really high-class field trial dogs. Some of them, on the contrary, are quite as great in speed and not only as clever at their business, but quite as keen-nosed as other Setters. Some which have competed within the past few years at the Irish Red Setter Club's trials have had as rivals some of the best Pointers from England and Scotland, and have successfully held their own.

The Secretary of the Irish Setter Club is Mr. S. Brown, 27, Eustace Street, Dublin, and the standard of points as laid down by that authority is as follows:

Head-The head should be long and lean. The skull oval (from ear

to ear), having plenty of brain room, and with well-defined occipital protuberance. Brows raised, showing stop. The muzzle moderately deep and fairly square at the end. From the stop to the point of the nose should be fairly long, the nostrils wide, and the jaws of nearly equal length; flews not to be pendulous. The colour of the nose dark mahogany or dark walnut, and that of the eyes (which ought not to be too large) rich hazel or brown. The ears to be of moderate size, fine in texture, set on low, well back, and hanging in a neat fold close to the head. Neck-The neck should be moderately long, very muscular, but not too thick ; slightly arched, free from all tendency to throatiness. Body-The body should be long. Shoulders fine at the points, deep and sloping well back. The chest as deep as possible, rather

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