i 



406 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



deer oTcyhounds, and, certainly, by crosses at different times, 

 I had in my possession the largest and fastest dogs I ever saw 

 in my life. Sraoaker was one of them ; his mother I know was 

 the common English greyhound, but as to his sire, the farmer 

 Avho bred him said, " he was some sort of a large foreign dog, 

 but he could not tell me what." Sraoaker, crossed with a 

 greyhound called " Vagrant," given to me by Mr. Thorpe, of 

 Chippenham, near Newmarket, continued much of his speed 

 and power, but not his commanding size, I have also crossed 

 the Eno-lish greyhound with the St. Bernard as well as with 

 the great Danish coach-dog ; I bred from the largest bitch of 

 the latter description I ever saw in my life, but her whelps, 

 generally speaking, were w( rth nothing ; one only which in 

 shape followed the sire was good for anything, and that I 

 o-ave away. By these crosses I have produced enormous 

 doo-g; but if two of the crosses met, the want of the tho- 

 rough breed on one side or the other, made every litter dete- 

 riorate. Nature draws a line, and tells the breeder, unmis- 

 takably, that he shall breed dogs to a certain size, and no 

 larger. Those of my readers, therefore, who wish to breed 

 o-ood doo-s, must never go beyond one cross, but that ef- 

 fected, the next must go back either on the part of the su'C 

 or the dam, to a pure race. 



In breeding those beautifully-plumaged birds the hybrids, 

 mules between the cock-pheasant and the bantam or common 

 barn-door fowl, or the game hen, they can only be bred from 

 the male of the pheasant; it is extraordinary, the curious 

 facts as to these birds that I have elicited. It was at one 

 time affirmed by naturalists, that no bird that had not laid 

 ccTo-s, would sit. The hybrids, who are mules to all intents 

 and purposes, will sit without laying, and hatch the eggs of 

 other fowls, and be to the chickens the best of mothers. 



The first instance I had of this was in a small aviary into 

 which I had put a hen hybrid, who had lost a foot in a rabbit 

 trap, as nothing could keep her from straying. I found her 

 one morning sitting in a corner, and thought she was ill. At 

 feeding time she came out of the corner very hungry, and, 

 having fed, returned to the corner again. I could not make 



