At Grand Junction

In last year's trials throughout the South, pointers won so regularly that the old pointer v. setter argument seemed academic long before Edward R. Coleman's pointer Susquehanna Tom won the Grand National. In minor meets this winter, setters have won almost as many firsts as pointers but pointers have won the more important prizes. Of the 16 dogs entered for the Grand National, run last week over the Ames Plantation near Grand Junction, Tenn., only two were setters and the favorite, if there was one, was Walter C. Teagle's white & liver pointer, Norias Roy, who won the Continental trials in January.

The first day out, Kremlin, pointer owned by Jacob France of Baltimore, found four coveys and three singles in a good heat, then dismayed his handler by pointing two rabbits. Two days later a young pointer named Dr. Blue Willing caused a sensation by getting lost for an hour and a half, after starting his heat with a brilliant find. For the first time in 20 years the brace in the finals belonged to one owner, Andrew G. C. Sage of New York, nephew of the late great Russell Sage. One was Superlette, nine-year-old bitch, who was runner-up last year after going through the trials in a splint to save her bad leg. The other was Rapid Transit, a muscular liver & white dog who, in his semi-final heat with the pointer Mad Anthony, made eleven finds, handled perfectly, wound up the last 30 min. of the three-hour run with three fine casts, each for a fresh find.

When he was braced with Superlette. there was one more thing the judges wanted to know about Rapid Transit-- whether he would back properly on the other dog's find. Their chance came after an hour's run; Superlette froze directly in front of the gallery and the judges' stand. When Rapid Transit honored her perfectly without a word of advice from his handler. Clyde Morton of Alberta, Ala., the judges decided that his performance was complete. They did not bother to name a runner-up, gave him the $1,500 purse, a first leg on the R. W. Bingham Trophy, donated by the publisher of the Louisville, Ky., Courier-Journal and Times.

Not for five or six years have quail been so plentiful as this year on the Ames Plantation. And this year Hobart Ames was able to show his guests many a covey of the curious red quail which, discovered on his place, he has been fostering ardently. These birds, which he believes to be a rare species rather than a mutation, have all the characteristics of plain bob white but their plumage is a dark reddish brown, solid except for, on some specimens, one round white spot on the breast. From three cocks and a hen trapped five years ago Mr. Ames has raised and released several hundred bred true to the new type. Though they do not seem to thrive when shipped elsewhere, on the Ames place they are fine strong birds, flashing deep cherry red in the sunlight when a covey bursts away.

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