THEORY OF IN-BREEDING. 271 



comparing Drone, Sleight-of-hand, Yan Ambnrg, and Legerde- 

 main, with Phryne, Tliais, Falstaff, and Flatcatcher. Now, 

 why was this? Simply because Touchstone was a more distant 

 relation, and only one line in each was similar — namely, the 

 great-grandsire. Waxy ; but in the case of Pantaloon and De- 

 coy, there was a cousinship in the second degree, each having 

 Peruvian as a grandfather ; and not only that, but Decoy herself 

 was in-bred to Sir Peter, who was grandsire to both her dam 

 and sire, so that Sleight-of-hand and his brother and sister were 

 tioice in-bred to him. ]^ow, as the Pantaloon and Decoy blood 

 hit, and their produce not only were fast but stout, there was 

 good reason for returning to Pataloon after the out-cross with 

 Touchstone, which produced Phryne ; this mare, when put to 

 him, was successively the dam of Elthiron, Windhound, Miser- 

 rima, liobbie Noble, the Peiver, and Rambling Katie ; thus still 

 farther proving the value of in-breeding, more especially with 

 an intervening out-cross, as in this case. 



Example 2. — Cyprian, again, is an example of the j^i'oduc- 

 tion of a lot of second-class horses, b}'' crossing her with various 

 sires not related in blood — as, for instance, Jereed, Yeloeipede, 

 Voltaire, and Hetman Platoff ; but when put to Birdcatcher, a 

 gi-eat-great-grandson of Prunella, being herself a grand-daughter 

 of the same celebrated mare, she threw a superior animal, in 

 the shape of Songstress. 



Example 3. — Yirginia bred a series of middling horses, by 

 Yoltaire, Hetman Platoff, Emilius, and Birdcatcher, in all of 

 which^ there was a single point, in which she was related, but in 

 all very distantlj^, neither was the strain, except that of Orville, 

 first-rate ; but when put to Pyrrhus I. she produced a Yirago, 

 wdio, as long as she remained sound, was \eYj far the best of 

 her year. On examining and com^^aring the pedigrees of the 

 sire and dam, it will be seen that Selim and Pubens — brothers 

 — occur on each side once, and Whalebone, whose name is seen 

 twice in the table of Pyrrhus I., is represented in that of Yir- 

 ginia, by Woful, his brother, beside which Young Giantess 

 occurs in each table. These are over and above the Hamble- 

 tonian relationship, which is the same in this case as is that of 

 the result of the cross with Yoltaire and Hetman Platoff. 



Example 4. — In the last year, after a series of failures, Alice 



