598 THE DESCENT OF MAN, 



deerhounds who would not take any notice of a particular 

 female mastiff, so that another deerhound had to be 

 employed. It would be superfluous to give, as I could, 

 other instances, and I will only add that Mr. Barr, who 

 has carefully bred many bloodhounds, states that in almost 

 every instance particular individuals of opposite sexes show 

 a decided preference for each other. Finally, Mr. Cup- 

 pies, after attending to this subject for another year, has 

 written to me: " I have had full confirmation of my former 

 statement that dogs in breeding form decided preferences 

 for each other, being often influenced by size, bright color 

 and individual characters, as well as by the degree of their 

 previous familiarity.^' 



In regard to horses, Mr. Blenkiron, the greatest breeder 

 of race-horses in the world, informs me that stallions are 

 so frequently capricious in their choice, rejecting one mare 

 and without any apparent cause taking to another, that 

 various artifices have to be habitually used. The famous 

 Monarque, for instance, would never consciously look at the 

 dam of Gladiateur, and a trick had to be practiced. We 

 can partly see the reason why valuable race-horse stallions, 

 which are in such demand as to be exhausted, shoilld be so 

 particular in their choice. Mr. Blenkiron has never known 

 a mare reject a horse ; but this has occurred in Mr. 

 Wright's stable, so that the mare had to be cheated. 

 Prosper Lucas* quotes various statements from French 

 authorities, and remarks: ^^On voit des etalons qui s'epren- 

 nent d'une jument, et negligent toutes les autres.'' He 

 gives, on the authority of Baelen, similar facts in regard to 

 bulls; and Mr. H. Reeks assures me that a famous short- 

 horn bull, belonging to his father, ''^invariably refused to 

 be matched with a black cow." Hoffberg, in describing 

 the domesticated reindeer of Lapland, says: ^'FcBmin^e 

 majores et fortiores mares prae caeteris admittunt, ad eos 

 confugiunt, a junioribus agitatae, qui hos in fugam con- 

 jiciunt." t A clergyman, who has bred many pigs, asserts 

 that sows often reject one boar and immediately accept 

 another. 



From these facts there can be no doubt that, with most 

 of our domesticated quadrupeds, strong individual antipa- 



* " Traite de I'Hered. Nat.." torn, ii, 1850, p. 296. 

 t " AmoenitateB Acad.," vol. iv, 1788, p. 160. 



