NOTITIA VENATICA. 23 



wUl seldom allow of the breeding establishment being very cxtensiA'^e for 

 the first season. It is never worth while to breed from very old bitches; 

 the whelps they throw are frequently small and weak ; and those which 

 can be really depended upon as being of a good family and sound con- 

 stitution will, of course, not be very numerous. If you have some old 

 bitches in your kennel of undeniable blood and excellence, which are 

 getting rather too slow for winter hunting, as soon as the cub-hunting is 

 over they should be well physicked and put away by themselves, taking 

 care to let them be well fed on good and nourishing food, and daily ex- 

 ercised with a horse, but not loorked. They will thus become invigorated 

 in their constitutions, and by coming into use about Christmas will have 

 by far a greater chance of tin-owing strong whelps than if left to the or- 

 dinary course of things. Never breed from those which are dehcate of 

 either sex, and never propagate vice in your kennel by breeding from 

 any one which is notoriously wild and vicious, though he be ever so 

 stout and handsome. 



There is no doubt that the impression of your own brand on the sides 

 of your hounds is a far more agreeable sight than the initial letters of 

 another man's name. But before a breeder of hounds makes his debut 

 in that capacity, he should well consider, in the first place, what de- 

 scription of hounds he intends to possess. He should select a model, 

 and adhere to that model ; in fact, he should never put forward one 

 young hound Avhich does not come up to the sample, whether for the 

 sake of sort, power, or any other reason for favouritism. Nice equality 

 in height, where entire dissimilarity of character may prevail, is, in my 

 luunble opinion, of far less consequence than getting them not only to 

 run together, but to look like a family of brothers and sisters, even if 

 they are not quite so level to the eye. The attempt to achieve this 

 point will at first be attended with much difficulty, vexation, and disap- 

 pointment. 



The great obstacle is, the small quantity of roomy bitches of anything 

 like breeding to be found in any kennel, excepting those which have been 

 long established. In the next place, it must be considered what sort of 

 dog hounds will best suit the various bitches to be used ; the deficiencies 

 in one sex must be supphed by the excellence, in points, possessed by 

 the other. The best judges only attempt to breed from hounds which 

 can be well relied upon, not only for their own individual merits, but as 

 being of families imstained by vice or weakness of constitution ; Mobile 

 inexperienced persons, wishing to attain the highest steps of the ladder 

 at once, breed from almost every bitch that may be in the kennel, and 

 fancy that because a union has been efl^ected with a dog of some cele- 

 brated blood, all the Avhelps put out to quarters must come in well up to 

 their ideas of perfection. But when the first of March arrives, bitter 

 disappointment is the consequence ; and a set of spindle-legged, flat- 

 sided, egg-suckers,* or chucked-up, calf-kneed, jumbo-headed brutes — ■ 

 fit for nothing but to draw an organ about the streets of London — make 

 their appearance ; or, even if they are handsome enough to be put for- 



* So called, in kennel language, from their similarity to weasels. 



