Chap. XVII. GKEATER SIZE OF THE MALE. 261 



Accordingly, I applied to Mr. Ciipples, a well-known 

 breeder of these dogs, who has weighed and measured 

 many of his own dogs, and who, with great kindness, has 

 collected for me the following facts from various sources. 

 Superior male dogs, measured at the shoulder, range 

 from twenty-eight inches, which is low, to tliirty-three, 

 or even thirty-four inches in height; and in weight 

 from eighty pounds, which is low, to 120, or even more 

 pounds. The females range in height from twenty- 

 three to twenty-seven, or even to twenty-eight inches ; 

 and in weight from fifty to seventy, or even eighty 

 pounds.^'^ Mr. Cupples concludes that from ninety-five 

 to one hundred pounds for the male, and seventy for 

 tlie female, would be a safe average ; but there is reason 

 to believe that formerly both sexes attained a greater 

 weight. Mr. Cupples has weighed puppies when a 

 fortnight old ; in one litter the average weight of four 

 males exceeded that of two females by six and a half 

 ounces ; in another litter the average weight of four 

 males exceeded that of one female by less than one 

 ounce ; the same males, when tliree weeks old, exceeded 

 the female by seven and a half ounces, and at the age 

 of six weeks by nearly fourteen ounces. Mr. Wright 

 of Yeldersley House, in a letter to Mr. Cupples, says : 

 " I have taken notes on the sizes and weights of puppies 

 " of many litters, and as far as my experience goes, 

 " dog-puppies as a rule differ very little from bitches 

 " till they arrive at about five or six months old ; and 

 "then the dogs begin to increase, gaining upon the 



2* See also Eicliardson's ' Manual on the Dog,' p. 59. Much valu- 

 able information on the Scottish deer-hound is given by Mr. McNeill, 

 who first called attention to the inequality in size between the sexes, in 

 Scrope's ' Art of Deer Stalking.' I hope that Mr. Cupples will keep to 

 his intention of publishing a full account and history of this famous 

 breed. 



