1 88 WILD LIFE OF SCOTLAND 



themselves, is probably fatal to the continuance 

 of a vigorous race. And the in-and-in breeding, 

 rendered increasingly necessary with lessening 

 numbers, will accomplish the rest. 



A well-known Forfarshire breeder was disap- 

 pointed, time after time, by the pups either being 

 born dead, or dying a few minutes after birth. 

 Anxious to ascertain the cause, he had some of 

 them opened, when it was discovered that a weak- 

 ness in the circulatory system made independent 

 life an impossibility. This, the anatomist, who 

 examined them, attributed to the extreme fineness 

 of the breeding, together probably with the inter- 

 relation between the parents. 



The downward pace might be slackened, and the 

 constitution reinvigorated, by a good cross say 

 with the mastiff, or the fox-hound. But a cross is 

 not the original. Forms of life are not preserved 

 among us on fancy conditions ; and the deer-hound 

 will probably insist on departing the land, with the 

 cause which first called him into existence, and 

 found fitting exercise for his powers. 



It is with sport as with a great many other 

 things. It is not criticism that can kill it out, 

 but internal degeneration and decay. So long as 

 it is manly; so long as it observes the ordinary 



