The setter is used for the same purpose as the pointer, and there is great difference of opinion with regard to their relative value as sporting-dogs. Setters are not so numerous; and they are dearer, and with great difficulty obtained pure. It was long the fashion to cross and mix them with the pointer, by which no benefit was obtained, but the beauty of the dog materially impaired; many Irish sportsmen, however, were exceedingly careful to preserve the breed pure. Nothing of the pointer can be traced in them, and they are useful and beautiful dogs, altogether different in appearance from either the English or Scotch setter. The Irish sportsmen are, perhaps, a little too much prejudiced with regard to particular colours. Their dogs ate either very red, or red and white, or lemon-coloured, or white, patched with deep chestnut; and it was necessary for them to have a black nose, and a black roof to the mouth. This peculiar dye is supposed to be as necessary to a good and genuine Irish setter as is the palate of a Blenheim spaniel to the purity of his breed. A true Irish setter will obtain a higher price than either an English or Scotch one. Fifty guineas constituted no unusual price for a brace of them, and even two hundred guineas have been given. It is nevertheless, doubtful whether they do in reality so much exceed the other breeds, and whether, although stout and hard-working dogs, and with excellent scent, they are not somewhat too headstrong and unruly. The setter is more active than the pointer. He has greater spirit and strength. He will better stand continued hard work. He will generally take the water when necessary, and, retaining the character of the breed, is more companionable and attached. He loves his master for himself, and not, like the pointer, merely for the pleasure he shares with him. His somewhat inferior scent, however, makes him a little too apt to run into his game, and he occasionally has a will of his own. He requires good breaking, and plenty of work; but that breaking must be of a peculiar character: it must not partake of the severity which too often accompanies, and unnecessarily so, the tuition of the pointer. He has more animal spirit than the pointer, but he has not so much patient courage; and the chastisement, sometimes unnecessary and cruel, but leaving the pointer perfect in his work, and eager for it too, would make the setter disgusted with it, and leave him a mere 'blinker'. It is difficult, however, always to decide the claim of superiority between these dogs. He that has a good one of either breed may be content, but the lineage of that dog must be pure. The setter, with much of the pointer in him, loses something in activity and endurance; and the pointer, crossed with the setter, may have a degree of wildness and obstinacy, not a little annoying to his owner. The setter may be preferable when the ground is hard and rough; for he does not soon become foot-sore.