174 BREEDING. 



and do^s may be instanced which have got good stock from all 

 sorts of mares and bitches. Yet in opposition to this may be 

 instanced the numbers which have had great opportunities for 

 snowing their good qualities, but while they have succeeded with 

 one or two they have failed with the larger proportion of their 

 harems. So with mares and bitches, some have produced, every 

 year of their breeding lives, one or more splendid examples of 

 their respective kinds, altogether independent of the horse or dog 

 which may be the other parent, so long as he is of the proper 

 strain. It is usually supposed that the sire impresses his ex- 

 ternal formation upon his stock, while the bitch's nervous tem- 

 perament is handed down ; and very probably there is some truth 

 in the hypothesis. Yet it is clearer that not only do the sire 

 and dam, but also the grandsires and grand-dams affect the pro- 

 geny on both sides, and still further than this up to the sixth and 

 perhaps even the seventh generations, but more especially on the 

 dam's side, through the granddam, great granddam, etc. There is 

 a remarkable fact connected with breeding which should be gen- 

 erally known, viz., that there is a tendency in the produce to 

 a separation between the different strains of which it is com- 

 posed ; so that a puppy composed in four equal proportions of 

 breeds represented by A, B, c, and D, will not represent all in equal 

 proportions, but will resemble one much more than the others. And 

 this is still more clear in relation to the next step backwards, when 

 there are eight progenitors ; and the litter which, for argument's 

 sake, we will suppose to be eight in number, may consist of ani- 

 mals each " going back " to one or other of the above eight. This 

 accounts for the fact that a smooth terrier bitch put to a smooth 

 terrier will often " throw " one or more rough puppies, though the 

 breed may be traced as purely smooth for two or three genera- 

 tions, beyond which, however, there must have been across of the 

 rough dog. In the same way color and particular marks will be 

 changed or obliterated for one, two, or even three generations, 

 and will then reappear. In most breeds of the dog this is not 

 easily proved, because a record of the various crosses is not kept 

 with any great care ; but in the greyhound the breed, with the 



