SELECTION OF BROOD BITCH. 189 



therefore be taken that the brood bitch has not yet been injured 

 by training or subsequent neglect. In all these requisites it is 

 desirable that the brood bitch should herself partake, but in speed 

 it is not so necessary that she should in her own person shine ; 

 but she should certainly be of a speedy family, if it is expected 

 that her produce should inherit that quality. It often happens 

 that one bitch out of a litter of fast greyhounds is too small, 

 and perhaps too thickset, to attain high speed, and she, though 

 useless as a public performer, is the very animal to breed from, if 

 stout and honest, with enough destructiveness to render her anxious 

 to do her best towards killing her game. In fact, I should as 

 soon select such a bitch, which has been thrown aside as useless 

 by the public courser, as his more successful but worn-out favourite, 

 even though the winner of as many stakes as ( Mocking Bird,' 

 ' Cerito,' or ' Birdlime.' I repeat, then, let the family to which 

 the bitch belongs be your guide rather than the individual herself, 

 except in the two points of stoutness and honesty, which should 

 certainly be possessed by every brood bitch. In every other 

 particular it is more likely that the produce will possess the 

 general characteristics of that family than the peculiar properties 

 of the individual bitch. Thus, a large roomy bitch, if got by a 

 little dog out of a similar bitch to him, but accidently forced into 

 her increased size, will most probably ' throw ' a lot of under-sized 

 greyhounds ; and the reverse holds good with a small animal 

 belonging to a family of good-sized greyhounds. If, therefore, 

 you can get a small muscular bitch of from 45 Ibs. to 50 Ibs. 

 weight, belonging to a winning family whose general properties 



