OF PUPPIES. 103 



formity to breed from them together. We can only expect 

 to prove successful in rearing" a superior race of any domestic 

 animal, when we make our selection of parents with a care- 

 ful reference to the merits and defects in each, by balancing- 

 the one against the other, and by thus combining their dif- 

 ferent properties. It is by inattention to these circumstances 

 that so many persons, after giving immense prices for ani- 

 mals of particular breeds, have found themselves foiled in 

 their attempts at rearing any thing beyond mediocrity, which 

 animals, under the judicious management of a Russell, a 

 Coke, or an Ellman among cattle, or an Orford, a Mey- 

 NELL, a Rivers, or a Topham among dogs, would have 

 produced unrivalled excellencies. 



It is not no less to be understood, that it is not the form 

 only that we can alter or bring into the line of descent ; the 

 aptitudes and qualities are also to be cultivated ; they de- 

 scend in succession equally with the external form. Temper, 

 sagacity, and aptness under discipline, are all hereditary, 

 and are all equally to be taken into the account by a breeder. 

 Some breeds of pointers require little breaking, but the first 

 time they come on game they exhibit the required proper- 

 ties with nearly the steadiness of an old dog. A common 

 fault is often committed by theoretical and inexperienced 

 breeders, which consists in cultivating a particular quality, 

 or propagating a particular point of form ; but, at the same 

 time, losing sight of the general existing integrity, or future 

 improvement of the whole. In this way, fox-hounds may be 

 bred to run nearly as fast as greyhounds, at the expense of 

 their scent, hardihood, and sagacity. For it cannot be too 

 strongly inculcated on the mind of every breeder, as an esta- 

 blished law in the animal economy, that an extraordinary de- 

 gree of excellence on any one particular, either natural or 

 acquired, is almost invariably accompanied with a privation 

 of the usual quantity of it in some other. This law is fully 

 exemplified in those animals where breeding is carried to its 

 greatest refinement; or, in other words, where cultivation 

 in qualities or form, or both, weakens or destroys the in- 



