€hap. XVII. GEEATER SIZE OF THE MALE. 
261 
Accordingly, I applied to Mr. Ciipples, a well-known 
breeder of these dogs, who has weighed and measured 
many of his own dogs, and who, with great kindness, has 
collected for me the following facts from various sources. 
Superior male dogs, measured at the shoulder, range 
from twenty-eight inches, which is low, to thirty-three, 
or even thirty-four inches in height ; and in weight 
from eighty pounds, which is low, to 120, or even more 
pounds. The females range in height from twenty- 
three to twenty-seven, or even to twenty-eight inches ; 
and in weight from fifty to seventy, or even eighty 
pounds.^^ Mr. Cupples concludes that from ninety-five 
to one hundred pounds for the male, and seventy for 
the female, would be a safe average ; but there is reason 
to believe that formerly both sexes attained a greater 
weight. Mr. Cupples has weighed puppies when a 
fortnight old ; in one litter the average weight of four 
males exceeded that of two females by six and a half 
ounces ; in another litter the average weight of four 
males exceeded that of one female by less than one 
ounce ; the same males, when three weeks old, exceeded 
the female by seven and a half ounces, and at the age 
of six weeks by nearly fourteen ounces. Mr. Wright 
of Yeldersley House, in a letter to Mr. Cupples, says : 
I have taken notes on the sizes and weights of puppies 
of many litters, and as far as my experience goes, 
dog-puppies as a rule differ very little from bitches 
till they arrive at about five or six months old; and 
^'then the dogs begin to increase, gaining upon the 
See also Richardson’s ‘ Manual on the Dog/ p. 59. Much valu- 
able information on the Scottish deer-hound is given by Mr. McMeill, 
who first called attention to the inequality in size between the sexes, in 
Scrope’s ‘ Art of Deer Stalking.’ I hope that Mr. Cupples will keep to 
his intention of publishing a full account and history of this famous 
breed. 
