d 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
an