DOGS '. THEIR MANAGEMENT. 353 



The animal has then "heat," or oestrum, upon her, and 

 her system is generally excited. She is more lively, and 

 should any other dogs be with her, she indulges in a 

 variety of coquettish antics. Her attitudes when thus 

 excited are very picturesque, and the beauty of the ani- 

 mal is never exhibited to greater advantage. 



A lively grace animates her whole frame ; and she 

 is now the creature a painter should study, or a poet 

 describe. She will not immediately accept the male, 

 whose passion she evidently practises all her arts to 

 excite. For a few days, perhaps, a romping courtship 

 may go forward before union is actually permitted. 



Dog fanciers almost universally attach importance to 

 the appearance of the discharge. Some say the dog 

 should not be offered before the bleeding begins to 

 diminish. If these rules are not attended to, I have been 

 most confidently assured the evil consequences of the 

 neglect are certain to be present in the pups. The litter 

 prematurely begotten, it is foretold, must be bad in some 

 way; though why this should be the case, or how the 

 cause produces such effects, none of the dog fanciers have 

 been able to explain. 



As by attempting to obey these injunctions I have 

 known many disappointments to be produced, there was 

 every inducement, even had I not been inquisitive from 

 professional motives, to set me testing the truth of these 

 assertions ; for I am not inclined to sneer at every opinion 

 announced by persons devoid of education. A power to 

 observe is by no means regulated by an ability to read or 



