ON COl]USlN(;. 



13; 



Many a dog-, too, lias been destroyed by gorging himself 

 while out of breath, after a long course, and has died of 

 sufibcation. 



Ci.AP. XXV. 

 Ware dead. 



Dog-puppies must not be taken out coursing until they are Chap. xxvi. 

 two years old,^ for their limbs become set at a much later period Age of enter- 

 than those of bitches. Besides it is attended with no little puppies, 

 danger to take them out earlier, many a greyhound having 

 been prematurely destroyed by a severe course before he was 

 full-grown, and especially those of the greatest spirit and 

 highest breeding ; for, in consequence of their spirit, they run 

 to the very utmost of their power. 



The other practical points, already insisted on in reference to 

 bitches, are equally to be attended to in regard to the other 

 sex. Dogs are to be kept from copulation within the age Age of sexual 

 stated ; for the seed being not yet matured in them, is generally "itercourse. 

 weak and evanid, xuQuTrsp 19 toov vuldcov. ^ The puppies them- 



1. Few coursers wait till the period specified before they enter their dog-puppies : 

 but it occasionally happens that dogs entered at fifteen months old, if they are large 

 and unset in their limbs, break down under severe work, and are rendered subse- 

 quently useless ; while others, again, more neat and compact of shape, will run as 

 well at eighteen months as at any later period. 



" Men shuld late renne no houndes," says Duke Edmund, " of what condicions /Mniififrr nf 

 that thei be of, ne nat hunte with hem in to the tyme that thei were a xii mounthis ©aniC c xiii. 

 olde and passed, and also thei may hunt but ix yeer at the moost." 



2. *wA.OTT€JV 5e Ka\ anh oxefas. 



fol. 52. 



Venus imminuit vires ! 



non ulla magis vires iiidustria firmat, 



Quam Venerera et caeci stimulos avertere amoris. 



Lucret. L. v. 

 vs. 1016. 



Virgil. Georg. 

 III. 209. 



Columella, who admits the dog and bitch to copulate much earlier than Arrian, is 

 still aware of the mischievous consequences of the practice ; " si teneris conceditur," De Re Rust, 

 says he, " carpit et corpus et vires, animosque degenerat." 



L. VII. c. XII. 



Blanda Venus canibus non permittenda tenellis. 



As to the exact period at which tlie ewTJs tpya of Oppian (Hal. i. 532.) should 

 commence, and their probable duration, without risk of breeding from animals too far 



Vanierii Prred. 

 Rust. L. IV, 



