MAMMALS-CHOICE IN PAIBING. 519 



"others, and fiercely driving off all intruders. This surveillance 

 "always keeps him actively occupied." 



As so little is known about the courtship of anima/ls in a state 

 of nature, I have endeavored to discover how far our domesti- 

 cated quadrupeds evince any choice in their unions. Dogs offer 

 the best opportunity for observation, as they are carefully at- 

 tended to and well understood. Many breeders have expressed 

 a strong opinion on this head. Thus, Mr. Mayhew remarks, 

 "The females are able to bestow their affections; and tender 

 "recollections are as potent over them as they are known to be 

 "in other cases, where higher animals are concerned. Bitches 

 "are not always prudent in their loves, but are apt to fling 

 "themselves away on curs of low degree. If reared with a com- 

 "panion of vulgar appearance, there often springs up between 

 "the pair a devotion which no time can afterwards subdue. The 

 "passion, for such it really is, becomes of a more than romantic 

 "endurance." Mr. Mayhew, who attended chiefly to the smaJler 

 breeds, is convinced that the females are strongly attracted by 

 males of a large size.*" The well-known veterinary Blaine states" 

 that his own female pug became so attached to a spaniel, and a 

 female setter to a cur, that in neither case would they pair with 

 a dog of their own breed until several weeks had elapsed. Two 

 similar and trustworthy accounts have been given me in regard 

 to a female retriever and a spaniel, both of which became enam- 

 ored with terrier-dogs. 



Mr. Cupples informs me that he can personally vouch for the 

 accuracy of the following more remarkable case, in which a 

 valuable and wonderfully intelligent female terrier loved a re- 

 triever belonging to a neighbor to such a degree, that she had 

 often to be dragged away from him. After their permanent sep- 

 aration, although repeatedly showing milk in her teats, she would 

 never acknowledge the courtship of any other dog, and to the 

 regret of her owner never bore puppies. Mr. Cupples also states, 

 that in 1868, a female deerhound in his kennel thrice produced 

 puppies, and on each occasion showed a marked preference for 

 one of the largest and handsomest, but not the most eager, of 

 four deerhounds living with her, all in the prime of life. Mr. 

 Cupples has observed that the female generally favors a dog whom 

 she has associated with and knows; her shyness and timidity 

 at first incline her against a strange dog. The male, on the 

 contrary, seems rather inclined towards strange females. It ap- 

 pears to be rare when the male refuses any particular female, 

 but Mr. Wright, of Yeldersley House, a great breeder of dogs, 



M 'Dogs: their Management,' by E. Mayhew, M. R. C. V. S., 2nd edit. 

 1864, pp. 187-192. 



" Quoted by Alex. Walker 'On Intermarriage,' 183S, p. 276, see, alsa 

 p. 244. 



