Other breeds of gun dogs which have attained some small degree of field success in the United States are the griffon and the aire dale. The griffon, a slow, steady searcher and pointer, of sound retrieving ability, has won popularity from a necessarily limited field of admirers. Attempts to elevate the hardy and efficient airedale to gun dog rank have met with small, if any, recogni tion. That the airedale will retrieve is unquestioned. That he will sight trail and sometimes strike and fight is also proved by his use in some big game packs.
As an all round upland and marsh dog the springer spaniel is most in favour to-day. Larger and stronger than the average run of the breed, the springer locates and puts up pheasants and enters wild fowl, retrieving with sagacity and hardihood. The Irish water spaniel, an imported development in water-working gun dogs, has a great capacity for trailing and working wild fowl under tough conditions. Powerful and sagacious and with a tightly curled liver-coloured coat and distinctive top-knot and almost beaver like rat tail, the Irish water spaniel has many admirers. Experts in wildfowling, however, favour to no small extent the Chesapeake bay as the master gun dog for retrieving. He is rated by many as possessing every physical and moral requisite for the purpose.
Sprung from a much discussed origin, ranging from Irish retriever to Newfoundland heritage, the breed is now definitely estab lished and classified under three standards, dark, medium and sedge. The two first run to liver-coloured, the last has been bred so that its colour will conform more or less with western marsh surroundings. The conformation in all is the same: flat hair tend ing to wave; wide, flat skull; rather pointed nose—strong body and lemon eyes. The Chesapeake, running in weight up to nearly lb. but averaging 7o-8o lb. in full-grown, large males, is gifted with extraordinary strength for resisting cold. He possesses mar vellous eyesight and an almost uncanny intelligence and diligence in following wounded birds. The Chesapeake bay is essentially a one-man dog, becoming deeply attached to its master. He re quires but little breaking. Given the proper surroundings and a master intent upon the work in hand, the Chesapeake practically breaks himself. Chesapeakes are trained to work from either boat or blind, and in thick cover, high seas or stiff current will save the shooter a fair share of an otherwise small bag of ducks or geese.
A distressing phase of game restoration in the United States is that in many of the best upland sectors (notably in the South) gun dog blood often creeps into mongrel breeds of the local country side, producing a semi-hound type most detrimental in its scent ing prowess to birds and nests in the mating season. Tenants going
into the fields are almost invariably accompanied by these and other curs. Such dogs are a menace to the perpetuation of shoot ing and the use of gun dogs. Another retarding influence in the further or more general use of gun dogs in the United States is the increasing scarcity of all species of game. Curtailed shooting seasons and the time, trouble and money required to enable the average hunter to enjoy the sport while carrying a kennel through lengthy closed seasons will, in time, diminish the hunting instinct which is a predominant note in the American field heritage. Until the States and the Federal Government devote both time and money to the consideration and recognition of game restoration as a national reclamation project, revealing its food and commercial value to both farmers and sportsmen, the use of gun dogs will continue to decrease. (E. F. W.) Waterfowl Shooting.—More men in the U.S. hunt wild ducks and geese than any other species of game, with the exception of the rabbit. There is not a single State that does not furnish some duck shooting during the fall and winter. Wild ducks breed in almost every State, but the great bulk of these birds, together with the wild geese, nest north of the 4oth parallel. At the first touch of autumn millions of water fowl begin their southern migra tion, and it is then that the wild-fowler is abroad at daylight in order to get the best of the shooting. Until recently, wild ducks were sold on the markets of the United States, and gunners were also permitted to shoot them on their return flight from the South to the breeding grounds.
On March 14, 1913, the U.S. Government passed a law forbid ding return-flight or spring shooting of waterfowl. There was some question as to the constitutionality of this law. On Dec. 8, 1916, a treaty was entered into with Great Britain for the protec tion of the birds. A law was enacted on July 3, 1918, to put the treaty into effect. From that date not only has spring shooting been illegal, but the sale of wild ducks and geese has been out lawed. This last act was declared constitutional by the United States Supreme Court on April 19, 1920.