IN-AND-IN BREEDING. 179 



reduced their dogs to a state of idiotcy and delicacy of constitu- 

 tion which has rendered them quite useless. Thus I have seen in 

 the course of twenty years a most valuable breed of pointers, by a 

 persistence in avoiding any cross, become so full of excitability 

 that they were perpetually at " a false point," and backing one 

 another at the same time without game near them ; and, what is 

 worse, they could not be stirred from their position. This last 

 was from a want of mental capacity, for it is by their reasoning 

 powers that these dogs find out when they have made a mistake, 

 and without a good knowledge-box the pointer and setter are for 

 this reason quite useless. But the breed I allude to, when once 

 they had become stiff, were like Chinese idols, and must be abso- 

 lutely kicked or whipped up in order to make them start off beat- 

 ing again, Mr. A. Graham, who has had a long experience in 

 in-breeding greyhounds, and was at one time so successful as to 

 obtain the name of the " Emperor of Coursers," has laid down the 

 rule that " once in and twice out " is the proper extent to which 

 breeding in the greyhound should be carried, and probably the 

 same will apply to other breeds. Sometimes a sister may be put to a 

 brother even, when there has been no previous relationship in their 

 sire and dam ; but though this has answered well two or three 

 times, it is not to be generally recommended. A father may 

 in preference be put to a daughter, because there is only half the 

 same blood in them, when the sire and dam of the latter are not 

 related ; or an uncle to a niece ; but the best plan is to obtain a dog 

 which has some considerable portion of the same blood as the 

 bitch, but separated by one or two crosses ; that is to say, to put 

 two animals together whose grandfathers or great-grandfathers 

 were brothers, but whose mothers and grandmothers were not re- 

 lated to each other. This relationship will do equally well on the 

 dam's side, and the grandmother may be sister to the grandsire, 

 quite as well as having the two grandsires brothers. The practice 

 of breeding-in to this extent has been extensively adopted of late 

 years, and has answered well with the greyhound, in which breeds 

 as used for public coursing, the names of "Harriet Wilson," 

 ** Hour-glass," '* Screw," " Sparrowhawk," "Vraye Foy,""Mot. 



