102 BREEDING AND REARING 



sportsman acknowledges it, in its fullest degree^ in the ge- 

 nealogy of his dogs ; and experience teaches him that a cer- 

 tain degree of perfection, once gained, can only be continued 

 by successive propagation from the blood or breed. 



In our selection of breeders, a variety of circumstances 

 should necessarily engage our attention ; as, whether we are 

 continuing a breed already establiwshed, improving a defective 

 one, or altogether forming a new variety. In either case, 

 but particularly in the two latter, one or two propagations 

 are not sufficient to enable us to judge of the merits or de- 

 merits of a breed. Anomalies may occur, monstrosities ap- 

 pear, or our dogs may breed back. It should likewise be 

 always present to us, that, in despite of all our care, and in 

 face of the most favourable opportunities for selection, still 

 perfect specimens to breed from are unattainable ; and as, 

 therefore, we are necessarily to expect defects, it should be 

 our care to well examine that we do not select our male and 

 female subjects with each the same faulty form or property; 

 for, however perfect they may be in other respects, they 

 are, in such a case, totally unfit to breed from together. We 

 may, for instance, suppose an otherwise eligible pair of 

 pointers, of the purest blood, but that each, from early and 

 constant confinement, had contracted long, weak, spread- 

 ing phalanges or toes, instead of a round, cat-like, form of 

 foot. By choosing a mate for each of these whose feet 

 were particularly good, we might remedy this defect, and 

 preserve the breed ; but it would be only propagating de- 



Circassians distinguish the various races of their horses by marks on 

 the buttocks. When a noble mark is put on an ignoble breed, the 

 forgery is punished with death.— Pallas's Travels in the Southern Pro- 

 vinces of the Russian Empire, chap. 14. 



In Persia, almost equal ceremony takes place when a breed is under- 

 taken between some of their most highly-prized dogs. In England, 

 stallions have been sold for 1,000 guineas, bulls for 300, and rams for 

 the same. The celebrated Yorkshire greyhound, called Snowball, lined 

 bitches at three guineas each. Such estimation is purity of blood and 

 regularity of descent held in. 



