PUPPIES AND FOX-CUBS 225 



early choice, either because they are promised a puppy 

 or because some must reluctantly be sacrificed, and 

 they want to know which. Put all the puppies in a 

 row on the ground, a foot from their mother, and do 

 not choose those which manage to wriggle to her last, 

 is one rule. " Stonehenge," dealing seriously with the 

 selection of the survivors of greyhound litters, if the 

 sad necessity arises, recommends the following, which 

 for pure medievalism cannot, we think, be beaten : 

 " Let the puppies remain with their dam for a week. 

 Then hold each up by the tail ; the best ones will bring 

 their legs well over their head, and you can see which 

 possesses length and the promise of good ribs." 



Except when asleep puppies of this age squeal all 

 day long. When they begin to get their eyes open they 

 also begin to crawl, for, like babies, they crawl before 

 they can walk. At this time the litters are extremely 

 interesting from one point of view, for whatever they 

 are going to turn out afterwards long dogs, short 

 dogs, rough dogs, smooth dogs they are all almost 

 exactly alike in face, which is why " puppies " are 

 spoken of as all one and the same, and not by the 

 names of their breeds. Their noses are ridiculously 

 short and broad, often Roman-nosed, which is more 

 quaint than can be described, and their foreheads and 

 brows wrinkled as with the cares of unnumbered years. 

 When their weak little bleary eyes, which are generally 

 rather watery, begin to open, the lines are increased by 

 " crows' feet," and these, with the strong marks down 

 each side of their noses as if their heads had been 

 originally fastened on with wire like champagne corks, 



p 



