210 GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



defective in her. But this will not do in practice. It is necessary 

 to go deeper, and not only to do this, but to detect the cause of the 

 defect, and then to select an animal which possesses, both in him- 

 self and family, the peculiar conformation of body and brain 

 which will insure its correction. Thus a slow bitch may be 

 defective, either from her form being generally too thick and 

 compact, or, in particular, from having clumsy shoulders, or 

 weak hind-quarters, or lastly, from a weak or sluggish nervous 

 organisation. Now each of these deficiencies would require a dif- 

 ferent stallion to rectify it. As for instance, a slow and clumsy- 

 shouldered bitch would not be likely to produce a fast litter of 

 whelps by putting her to a fast dog, which had nevertheless, as is 

 sometimes seen, equally clumsy shoulders with herself. But if 

 put to a dog with good racing, yet powerful hind-quarters, and 

 shoulders well sloped and light, and belonging to a family of 

 similar form, her produce may possibly even exceed our expecta- 

 tions. Again, it would never answer to put a bitch deficient in 

 courage to a dog of the same worthless class. But with this 

 general principle in view, there is another also to be considered, 

 and that is, not only to endeavour to rectify defects, in which aim 

 you are often likely to fail, but also to retain, and if possible 

 improve, those points which are already well developed in the bitch, 

 by selecting a dog which has them also in a state of perfection, 

 and in the same form and style. Now this I take to be one of 

 the great secrets of breeding, and one which is less attended to 

 than it ought to be. To explain my meaning, I shall venture to 

 give an illustration. The celebrated ' Cerito,' as I have elsewhere 



