ON BREEDING AND REARING ANIMALS. 29 



not solely on the principle of breeding in and 

 in ; no doubt, in the pursuit of this principle, 

 there are, as in every process, two extremes and 

 a medium. 



As for dogs, I knew a gentleman, who by 

 crossing had lost the valuable , qualities of his 

 greyhounds, which determined him to try back, 

 by breeding from the nearest blood, and he suc- 

 ceeded, and recovered his lost excellence. And 

 Samuel Emley, Esq. of Salisbury, assured me, 

 he bred in and in, with the sam.e family, both 

 pointers and spaniels, for thirty years, and never 

 found them degenerate. 



No opinion is more common, than that game- 

 cocks will degenerate, when bred in and in ; but 

 having asked different breeders, in what points 

 they have been found to degenerate, I was an- 

 swered by one, that those so bred, would stand 

 up till killed, but that they had no spirit or ac- 

 tivity ; whilst the other asserted, that they were 

 all activity, spirit, and dash, at the onset, but 

 gave in after a blow or two. I have also re- 

 peatedly heard the same inconsistent objections 

 made to breeding in and in with greyhounds ; 

 one party asserting, that those so bred, have 

 great speed, but no bottom, whilst another states, 

 that they have no activity or speed, but will run 

 till death. 



