52 COURSING 



that choice will naturally fall on Mullingar, as his performances 

 will bear looking into, and his speed is undeniable ; more- 

 over, such of his stock as we have seen are full of promise. 

 In fact, we are convinced that a carefully selected com- 

 bination of Mullingar with Macpherson bitches will assuredly 

 produce high-class winners. Our own dog Habeas Corpus 

 was a sticker of the first water with fair speed, and he kept 

 on winning. That Mullingar was a dog of very great 

 courage we take leave to doubt, and on one occasion we 

 saw him deliberately 'cut it.' Next we will analyse the Mac- 

 pherson-Rota combination. MacPherson himself was got by 

 Master Sam, son of Contango, and one of the speediest dogs 

 ever slipped, whilst his dam, Annie Macpherson, was by 

 Fusilier (a grandson of Judge), so that there is no doubt about 

 his running blood. Rota was by Balfe (a son of Contango) 

 out of Ruby III. Now it may be held that the cross between 

 a Misterton dog and a Macpherson bitch is carrying inbreed- 

 ing to a dangerous extent ; but, supposing there is no consti- 

 tutional weakness on either side, and taking care that the 

 Misterton dog has a fresh strain on his dam's side, and that 

 the Macpherson bitch has a like advantage, we maintain that 

 the happiest results may be expected. 



We will now pass on to the Ptarmigan- Gallant Foe 

 combination, which includes a Waterloo winner in Princess 

 Dagmar, Paris (sire of Miss Glendyne and Bit of Fashion, 

 hence grandsire of Fullerton), and Jester (sire of Huic 

 Holloa and other winners noted for speed). Here, indeed, 

 we have a grand running strain. Ptarmigan was by Contango, 

 and his dam is inbred to the Canaradzo strain, with a telling 

 admixture of Cauld Kail's desirable blood. Gallant Foe also 

 has plenty of the grand vein, but one remarkable fact in her pedi- 

 gree is that her dam, Maggie Smith, is descended from a union 

 of Beacon, not with his ever-successful and legitimate spouse, 

 Scotland Yet, but with Miss Nightingale. A careful study of 

 Princess Dagmar's pedigree (p. 140), and a comparison with 

 that of Misterton and Macpherson, will show how similar 



