BREEDING. 193 



But let me refer the reader, who cares to listen to 

 the counsel of a genius in his line, to a perusal of 

 his letter at length. It will be found in the June 

 number (1860) of Bailey's Magazine. 



Briefly, it may be stated, for successful breeding it 

 is requisite that you use no female which has bred 

 before, without knowing what the cross was ; as it is 

 about universally allowed now, that the first union 

 leaves an unmistakeable trace upon all succeeding 

 issue. It is especially unsafe to breed from a female 

 that has paired with any unsuitable partner ; for 

 instance, in the celebrated case of Lord Morton's 

 chesnut thorough-bred mare, which, having been 

 once put to a quagga, threw subsequently her foal to 

 a black Arabian horse with the stripe of the wild ass 

 across its shoulders. When a white sow is sent to a 

 black boar, it is quite as likely as not that, when she 

 breeds by one of her own colour again, there will be 

 one or more black ones, as a memento of the former 

 family. 



Other more curious instances yet, sustaining this 

 view, you may find in any of the more able books 

 upon the subject. Another puzzling phenomenon to 

 be looked to in breeding is that objects which meet 

 the female's eye during gestation, from affecting her 

 imagination, mysteriously take often a further effect 

 upon the offspring. We all know the old stories of 

 children born with currant bunches, &c, on their 

 arms or breast, and there are recorded in the annals 

 of cattle-breeding indubitable facts, which tend to 

 show that there is much of actual occurrence under- 

 lying the surface in the apparently romantic account 



