182 THE SCIENCE OF BREEDINa. 



from dams of the middle age, from three to six 

 years old, although the first litter from a large, 

 lengthy mother often proves as clever as any sub- 

 sequent one. With fox-hounds I never consi- 

 dered it safe or judicious to breed from any which 

 had not worked faii^y through to the end of their 

 second season, or until the March of that year, by 

 which time their characters will have become tole- 

 rably well established. 



On the subject of breeding %n-and4ny as it is 

 termed in sportsmen's phrase, or from animals of 

 the same family, great diversity of opinion exists, 

 founded partly, I am inclined to think, on the 

 dicta of sporting authors of some celebrity. Cattle 

 breeders, also, do not raise any serious objections 

 to this system, which is not found to be at vari- 

 ance with the production of animals of good form 

 and fashion, upon the long-established principle or 

 rule of nature, like begetting like ; but even sup- 

 posing this course may answer the purpose with 

 cattle, it does not follow that it should be attended 

 with the same beneficial results in breeding hounds 

 and other sporting dogs, from which something 

 more than mere shape and symmetry is expected. 

 Having tried the experiment of breeding from 

 brother and sister, father and daughter, merely as 

 an experiment to watch the issue, T may state 



