56 B R E E D I N G. 



didatorially decilive more than the general af- 

 fertion of their going eleven months (or the 

 common witticifm, that ** a hare and a mare 

 go a twelvemonth'.'') but whether it is un- 

 derftood eleven lunar or calendar months, I 

 beheve has never been critically explained (at 

 leaft generally known^ and this is in fad the 

 more extraordinary when we recoiled: that 

 eleven calendar months make within two 

 days of twelve ot the other ; nor indeed are 

 there but few inftances in w^hich the know- 

 ledge of fuch nice diftindion can be pro- 

 dudive of much utility, yet it creates fome 

 furprife that it has not been particularly 

 noticed by fucceffive naturalifts, as circum- 

 ftances have arifen and may fometimes hap- 

 pen, where fuch precifion would effedually 

 remove a doubt or eftablifh a fad. 



A want of early attention to a difcovery of 

 this minutiae was attended with a trifling lofs 

 to me fome years fince in my firft breeding 

 embarkation, when in poffeffion of much lefs 

 obfervation and experience ; for having ob- 

 tained the loan of a ftrong bony mare from a 

 friend in Windfor Great Park, for the purpofe 

 of breeding, I had her covered by a large, 



powerful 



