58 THE GREYHOUND. 



their keepers. The best time of heat for the visit is im- 

 mediately before or after the bleeding, which normally 

 lasts but a few days. 



Statements are constantly being made and repeated, to 

 the effect that the sex of the progeny may be regulated 

 at will by the selection of the period at which the bitch 

 visits the dog. Such opinions appear to me to be the 

 offspring of the fruitful imagination of minds plentiful in 

 crops of such weeds because the cultivation of facts has 

 been neglected by them. There are many men who keep 

 dogs and consider themselves breeders on no better grounds 

 than that they have had whelps born in their kennels ; 

 and it is this class of men who are always cocksure when 

 others who have studied the subject find themselves in 

 doubt and difficulty. So far as statistics at present collated 

 point, the sexes are produced in nearly equal numbers, with 

 just a small percentage in favour of males, and altogether 

 independent of the time of oestrum at which coition took 

 place. 



If conception has taken place there will, after complete 

 disappearance of oestrum, be about two months before 

 the pups are due. The date of service, and that when 

 pups are expected, should be kept in that indispensable 

 requisite for the breeder, the "Kennel Diary," * which 

 contains a Table showing the interval of sixty-three days 

 the period of gestation for every day in the year. 



No change from ordinary treatment is required during 

 the earlier period of pregnancy, but as the pupping time 

 approaches care must be taken that the bitch is not 



* Published by L. Upcott Gill, 170, Strand, London. 



