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.