[The disposition to hunt by scent is not peculiar to the setter or
pointer, but in fact is common to all animals; developing itself in
different proportions according to their various physical constructions
and modes of life. The method of finding and pointing at game, now
peculiar to these dogs, and engendered in their progeny through
successive generations, is not the result of any special instinct, that
usually governs the actions of the brute creation--but rather the effect
of individual education and force of habit upon their several ancestors.
This habit of life, engrafted through progressive generations into these
breeds, has become a second nature, and so entirely the property of the
species, that all its members, with but little care on the part of man,
will perform these same actions in the same way, and will ever continue
to exhibit these propensities for hunting, provided opportunities be
offered for indulging them. Nevertheless, as these peculiar
predilections for "'setting or pointing'," as before said, are the
effect of education and habit, the artificial impulse would very soon be
entirely obliterated, if not encouraged in the young dogs of each
generation. This circumstance alone, proves to us the importance of
getting dogs from a well-known good strain, whose ancestors have been
remarkable for their exploits in the field. This necessary precaution
will insure a favourable issue to our troubles, and lessen materially
our labours. In fact young puppies have been frequently known to exhibit
this propensity the first time they have been taken to the field. Some
of these dogs have come under the notice of the writer, who at a few
months old exhibited all the peculiarities of their race; in fact were
"self-broke." These dogs were the progeny of a well-known imported
stock, in the possession of a gentleman who selected them in England.
Although other dogs, and other animals even, have been with great
difficulty and perseverance taught to find and point game, still these
two breeds seem especially adapted by nature, both in their physical and
intellectual construction, for the performance of this particular duty
to man.
The sense of smell is differently developed in different animals; the
olfactory nerve of the dog is larger than any other in the cerebrum,
which peculiarity will at once account for their wonderful powers of
scent.
'Swine', also, have these nerves largely developed; and necessarily so,
as both in a state of nature or half-civilization, the greater portion
of their food is buried under the earth or mingled with the filth and
mire of their sties, and would pass unheeded, if not for the acuteness
of their nasal organs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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