578 
CHAPTER LXVI. 
BREEDING AND WHELPING. 
“ For cvery longing dame select 
Some happy paramour ; to him alone 
In leagues connubial join. Consider well 
His lineage ; what his fathers did of old, 
Chiefs of the pack, and first to climb the rock, 
Or plunge into the deep, or tread the brake 
HE modern practice of dog-breeding 
in Great Britain has reached a con- 
dition which may be esteemed as an 
art. At no other time, and in no other 
country, have the various canine types been 
kept more rigidly distinct or brought to 
a higher level of perfection. Formerly 
dog-owners—apart from the keepers of 
packs of hounds—paid scant attention to 
the differentiation of breeds and the con- 
servation of type, and they considered it 
no serious breach of duty to ignore the 
principles of scientific selection, and thus 
contribute to the multiplication of mon- 
grels. Discriminate breeding was rare, 
and if a Bulldog should mate himself with 
a Greyhound, or a Spaniel with a Terrier, 
the alliance was regarded merely as an in- 
convenience that brought about the inevit- 
able nuisance of another litter of plebeian 
puppies to divert the attentions of the 
dairymaid from her buttermaking or the 
stable boy from his work among the horses. 
So careless were owners in preventing the 
promiscuous mingling of alien breeds that 
it is little short of surprising so many of our 
canine types have been preserved in their 
integrity. Even at the present time there 
are people who wantonly permit their pure- 
bred dogs to form misalliances, and con- 
sider that no harm is done. But happily 
this inattention is rapidly giving place to 
a sense of responsibility, with the result 
that it is becoming more and more uncom- 
mon to meet a dog in the streets who does 
not bear resemblance to a_ recognisable 
breed. 
The elimination of the nondescript cur 
With thorn sharp-pointed, plashed, and briars 
imwoven. 
Observe with care his shape, sort, colour, size. 
Nor will sagactous huntsmen less regard 
His inward habtts.” 
SOMERVILE. 
is no doubt largely due to the work of the 
homes for lost dogs that are instituted in 
most of our great towns. Every year some 
26,000 homeless and ownerless canines are 
picked up by the police in the streets of 
London, and during the forty-five years 
which have elapsed since the Dogs’ Home 
at Battersea was established, as many as 
800,000 dogs have passed through the 
books, a few to be reclaimed or bought, 
the great majority to be put to death. A 
very large proportion of these have been 
veritable mongrels, not worth the value 
of their licences—diseased and maimed 
curs, or bitches in whelp, turned ruth- 
lessly adrift to be consigned to the 
oblivion of the lethal chamber, where the 
thoroughbred seldom finds its way. And 
if as many as 500 undesirables are de- 
stroyed every week at one such institution, 
*tis clear that the ill-bred mongrel must 
soon altogether disappear. But the chief 
factor in the general improvement of our 
canine population is due to the steadily 
growing care and pride which are bestowed 
upon the dog, and to the scientific skill 
with which he is being bred. 
Even the amateur dog-owner, who has no 
thought of shows and championships, is 
alive to the common interest of keeping the 
breeds distinct, whilst the experienced 
breeder of the show dog not only attends 
to the preservation of his favourite variety, 
but often goes so far as to keep the in- 
dividual strains of that same variety apart. 
The capable judge knows at a glance the 
various strains of the same breed, and has 
no difficulty in recognising a Jefferies Bull- 
