252 BREEDING. 



can be changed each time she breeds ; but the chief argument in 

 her favour being founded upon the supposition that she really 

 impresses her formation upon her progeny more than the dog. 

 This, however, is a vexed question in natural history as well as in 

 practical breeding, but from my own experience I am strongly of 

 opinion that it is true. Many horses and dogs may be instanced 

 which have got good stock from all sorts of mares and bitches ; 

 but in opposition to this may be instanced the numbers which 

 have had enormous opportunities of showing their good qualities, 

 but while they have succeeded with one or two they have failed 

 with the larger proportion of their harems. So with mares and 

 bitches; some have produced, every year of their breeding lives, one 

 or more splendid examples of their respective kinds, altogether 

 independent of the horse or dog which may be the parent, so long 

 as he is of the proper strain likely to hit with hers. It is usually 

 supposed that the sire impresses his external formation upon his 

 stock, while the bitch's nervous temperament is handed down ; and 

 very probably there is some truth in the hypothesis. Yet it is 

 clearer that not only do the sire and dam affect the progeny, but also 

 the grandsires and granddams on both sides, and still further than 

 this up to the sixth and perhaps even the seventh generations, but 

 more especially on the dam's side, through the granddam, great- 

 granddam, &c. There is a remarkable fact connected with breeding 

 which should be generally known, which is that there is a ten- 

 dency in the produce to a separation between the different strains 

 of which it is composed ; so that a puppy composed in four equal 

 proportions of breeds represented by A, B, c, and D, will not repre- 

 sent all in equal proportions, but will resemble one much more than 

 the others, and this is still more clear in relation to the next step 

 backwards, when there are eight progenitors : and the litter which, 

 for argument's sake, we will suppose to be eight in number, may 



