54 THE GREYHOUND. 



worn out with overwork, and was in a normal state of 

 health, I should, if owning a vigorous "bitch, prefer the 

 dog that had actually displayed the qualities I sought to 

 reproduce. 



The laws of heredity are not as yet thoroughly under- 

 stood ; but it may "be accepted, if not as an axiom, at least 

 as a rule so general in its application as to warrant us 

 in acting upon it, that excellence is more likely to be 

 inherited direct from excellence than from mediocrity, even 

 if of the same blood. 



The selection of the brood bitch is of the greatest possible 

 importance. That bitches of inferior or despised pedigrees 

 may have produced good pups, and even in some instances 

 dogs of extraordinary merit, is no argument against the 

 general principle that from the best we get the best. 

 Therefore, choose your bitch as to physical conformation by 

 the description given in a preceding chapter, and let her 

 be of fair size, with a leaning to the big side rather 

 than to the small, and with that build or shape which, 

 applied to mares, is called te roomy " ; and be sure she 

 is of a strong, vigorous constitution, with no tendency in 

 her family to develop any special form of disease, for that 

 would suggest an hereditary taint likely to be transmitted 

 to her pups. 



The question of pedigree is of the very highest importance ; 

 and by pedigree I do not mean a mere string of names. 

 Let the breeder consider the value of the pedigree from 

 the standpoint of merit displayed by the dogs that figure 

 in it, and in doing so note the characteristics that hav.e 

 marked the strain whether their forte has been speed, 

 cleverness, resolution, or endurance and particularly study 



