SETTING DOG
—is perhaps, in respect to natural formation and effect, the most beautiful and attracting of the canine species: there is an elegance of figure, an uniformity of shape, make, and speed; a pleasing variegation in colour, (being generally yellow, or brown pied;) an inexpressibly anxious solicitation of notice, and an aspect of affability and anticipating gratitude, beyond the power of the PENCIL to depict, or the PEN to describe. The sporting business of the SETTING-DOG (commonly called the English setter) is precisely the same with the POINTER, but with this difference, that, admitting their olfactory sensations to be equally exquisite, and that ONE can discover and receive the particles of SCENT (alias the effluvia of the game) as readily, and at an equal distance, with the OTHER, the difference of the sport, in which they are separately engaged, renders it necessary that one should do upon his legs, what the other does by prostration upon the ground; and they are neither more or less than the effect of education; for as in the sport of SHOOTING (with the pointer) the GAME is expected to rise, so in drawing (with a setting-dog and net) the BIRDS are required to lie.
Naturalists seem to have assumed a greater degree of latitude in respect to the CANINE SPECIES, than in any other part of the creation, where they have been less at a loss. Great musical teachers inculcate strongly, one forcible precept upon the minds and memories of their PUPILS, which is, "when they happen to err in execution, never to stop; because it will inevitably serve to convince the auditors, such are inadequate to the task they have undertaken; when by keeping on, not one in fifty may know an accidental mis-movement has taken place." Just so it seems to have been with speculative delineators of the CANINE RACE; where the pedigree could not be ascertained, the peculiar kind of any distinct class appears to have been accidentally forgotten. It does not seem that the origin of the POINTER is any where described, or by any writer attempted; but by the most respected authority we have, from whence information, instruction, and entertainment, can and may be derived, we are told, "the HOUND, the SETTING-DOG, and the TERRIER, are only one and the same race of DOGS; for it has been remarked, that the same birth has produced setting-dogs, terriers, and hounds, though the hound bitch has only had access to one of the three dogs." The true state of the case is precisely this, that although Nature, in her outlines, has furnished the canine race with powerful instinctive properties, by which their propensities, their pleasures, their dislikes, and attachments, may be disclosed; and notwithstanding it must be admitted, their olfactory sensations are refined in an extreme degree beyond the human species; yet much depends upon the means, mode and manner of education. This has been demonstrated a few years since beyond all manner of controversy, when a gamekeeper absolutely brought a full-grown PIG to hunt and point to the BIRDS; and procured a considerable emolument from displaying repeated proofs of his ingenuity, patience, and perseverance.