Man hunted for ages with dogs that he united in a pack; but these
packs were of a very heterogeneous composition, since they included
strong dogs, light dogs very swift of foot, shepherds' dogs, and
others noted for acuteness of scent, and even mongrels due to a
crossing with the wolf. It is from the promiscuousness of all these
breeds that has arisen our ordinary modern dog.
The pointer is of relatively recent creation, and is due to the
falconers. In our western countries, falconry dates from the fourth
and fifth centuries, as is proved by the capitularies of Dagobert.
This art, therefore, was not brought to us from the East by the
crusaders in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, as stated by Le
Maout in his Natural History of Birds.
The falconer soon saw the necessity of having a dog of nice scent
having for its role the finding or hunting up of game without pursuing
it, in order to permit the falcons themselves to enter into the sport.
This animal was called the bird dog, and was regarded as coming from
various countries, especially from Spain, whence the name of spaniel
that a breed of pointers has preserved. It is quite curious to find
that for three or four centuries back there have been no spaniels in
Spain. From Italy also and from southern climes comes what is called
the _bracco_, whence doubtless is derived the French name _braque_ and
English brach. Finally the _agasse_ of the Bretons was certainly also
one of the progenitors of our present pointers. It was, says Oppian, a
breed of small and very courageous dogs, with long hair, provided with
strong claws and jaws, that followed hares on the sly under shelter of
vine-stocks and reeds and sportively brought them back to their
masters after they had captured them. We have certainly here the
source of our barbets and griffons.
Finally the net hunters of the middle ages also contributed much to
the creation of the pointer, for it is to them that we owe the setter.
It is erroneously, in fact, that certain authors have attributed the
creation of this dog to hunters with the arquebuse, since this weapon
did not begin to be utilized in hunting until the sixteenth century.
Gaston Phoebus, who died in 1391, shows, in his remarkable work, that
the net hunters made use of Spanish setters and that it was they who
created the true pointer--the animal that fascinates game by its gaze.
By the same pull of their draw net they enveloped in its meshes both
the setter and the prey that it held spellbound.
Upon the whole, we see that at the end of the middle ages there
existed three types of pointers: spaniels, brachs and very hairy dogs,
that Charles Estienne, in his Maison Rustique, of the sixteenth
century, calls barbets. It is again with these three types that are
connected all the present pointers, which we are going to pass rapidly
in review.
_The Brach hounds_.--To-day we reserve the name of brachs for all
pointers with short hair. The type of the old brach still exists in
Italy, Spain, the south of France and in Germany. It is characterized
by its large size, its robust form, its large head, its long, flat
ears, its square muzzle separated from the forehead by a deep
depression, its large nose, often double (that is to say, with
nostrils separated by a deep vertical groove), its pendent lips, its
thick neck, its long and strong paws provided with dew claws, both on
the fore and the hind feet, and its short hair, which is usually white
and marked with brown or orange-yellow spots. The old brach breed has
been modified by the breeders of different countries, either by
hygiene or by crossing with ordinary dogs, according to the manner of
hunting, according to taste, and even according to fashion. Thus in
England, where "time is money" reigns in every thing and where they
like to hunt quickly and not leisurely, the brach has been rendered
lighter and swifter of foot and has become the pointer. In France,
while it has lost a little in size and weight, it has preserved its
moderate gait and has continued to hunt near its master, "under the
gun," as they say. The same is the case in Spain, Italy and Germany
even. In France there are several varieties or sub-breeds of brach
hounds. The old French brach, which is nothing more than the old type,
preserved especially in the south, where it is called the Charles the
Tenth brach, is about twenty-four inches in height, and has a white
and a maroon coat, which is somewhat coarse. It often has a cleft nose
and dew-claws on all the feet. The brach of the south scarcely differs
from the preceding except in color. Its coat has a white ground
covered with pale orange blotches and spots of the same color. The St.
Germain brach is finer bred, and appears to be a pointer introduced
into France in the time of Charles X. It has a very fine skin, very
fine hair of a white and orange color. The Bourbon brach has the
characters of the old French brach, with a white coat marked here and
there with large brown blotches, and the white ground spotted with the
same color; but what particularly characterizes this dog is that it is
born with a stumpy tail, as if three-quarters of it had been chopped
off. The Dupuy brach is slender and has a narrow muzzle, as if it had
some harrier blood in its veins. It is white, with large dark maroon
blotches. The Auvergne brach resembles the southern brach, but has a
white and black coat spotted with black upon white. The pointer, or
English brach (Fig. 3), descends from the old Spanish brach, but has
been improved and rendered lighter and much swifter of foot by the
introduction of the blood of the foxhound into its veins, according to
the English cynegetic authors themselves. The old pointer was of a
white and orange color, and was indistinguishable from our St.
Germain. The pointer now fancied is white and maroon and has a
stronger frame than the pointer of twenty years ago. The Italian
brachs are heavy, with lighter varieties, usually white and orange
color, more rarely _roan_, and provided with dew-claws, this being a
sign of purity of breed according to Italian fanciers. The German
brachs are of the type of the old brach, with a stiff white and
maroon coat, the latter color being so extensively distributed in
spots on the white as to make the coat very dark.
[Illustration: FIG 3.--POINTER.]
_Spaniels_.--The old type of spaniel has nearly disappeared, yet we
still find a few families of it in France, especially in Picardy and
perhaps in a few remote parts of Germany. The old spaniel was of the
same build as the brach, and differed from it in that the head, while
being short-haired, was provided with ears clothed with long, wavy
hair. The same kind of hair also clothed the whole body up to the
tail, where it constituted a beautiful tuft. The Picard spaniel is a
little lighter than the old spaniel. It has large maroon blotches upon
a white ground thickly spotted with maroon, with a touch of flame
color on the cheeks, over the eyes, and on the legs. The Pont-Andemer
spaniel is a Norman variety, with very curly hair, almost entirely
maroon colored, the white parts thickly spotted with a little color as
in the Picard variety, and a characteristic forelock on the top of the
head.
[Illustration: FIG 4.--ENGLISH SETTERS.]
In England, the spaniel has given rise to several varieties. In the
first place there are several sub-breeds of setters, viz.: The English
setter, still called laverack, which has large black or orange-colored
blotches on the head, the rest of the body being entirely white, with
numerous spots of the same color as the markings on the head (Fig. 4);
the Irish setter, which is entirely of a bright yellowish mahogany
color; and the Gordon setter, which is entirely black, with orange
color on the cheeks, under the throat, within and at the extremity of
the limbs (Fig. 5). Next come the field spaniels, a group of terrier
spaniels, which includes the Clumber spaniel, which is white and
orange color; the Sussex spaniel, which is white and maroon; the black
spaniel, which is wholly black; and the cocker, which is the smallest
of all, and is entirely black, and white and maroon, or white and
orange-colored, or tricolored.
[Illustration: FIG 5.--GORDON SETTER.]
_Barbets and Griffons_.--To this latter category belong the dogs, _par
excellence_, for hunting in swamps. The barbets are entirely covered
with long curly hair, like the poodles, which are directly derived
from them. They are white or gray, with large black or brown blotches.
The griffons differ from the poodles in their coarse and stiff hair,
which never curls. They have large brown blotches upon a white ground,
which is much spotted or mixed, as in the color of the hair called
roan. There is an excellent white and orange-colored variety. The
griffons, neglected for a long time on account of the infatuation that
was and is still had for English hunting dogs, are being received
again with that favor which they have never ceased to be the object of
in Germany and in Italy (where they bear the name of _spinone_).
Breeders of merit, such as Mr. Korthals, in Germany, and Mr. E.
Boulet, in France, are endeavoring to bring them into prominence (Fig.
6). Finally, we reckon also among hunting dogs some very happy
crosses between the spaniels and the barbets, which in England are
called retrievers or water spaniels.--_P. Megnin, in La Nature_.
[Illustration: FIG 6.--COARSE HAIRED GRIFFON.]
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