Πονούμενος ὁ λαγὼς ὑποκάμψας ἥξει. To the same point sings the poet of Barga:

Οὐκ ἐπειδὴ τὰ κρέα ἄρα περὶ πολλοῦ ποιητέον ἀνδρὶ ἐς κάλλος κυνηγετοῦντι. And yet we find that the hare’s flesh was in high estimation with epicures of old; and a coursed hare is particularly lauded by Martial among the luxuries of a country table,

In our own country, the sportsman was as attentive to supply the hall of banquet with its due portion of the delicate little animal, as the kennel with its appointed halow.

says the dignified Prioress of Sopewell, in her metrical canons of hunting.

See also “The Venery de Twety and of Mayster John Giffarde.” Fouilloux, p. 69. Turberville, p. 174. and Gervase Markham, C. C. p. 33.

Πονηρὸν μάθημα. It certainly is wrong to allow a greyhound to gorge himself with his game, after he has been sufficiently instructed in the art of killing; but no puppy should be hastily checked, when he has caught his hare, even though, in the words of old Gervase, “he may breake her.”

Few coursers wait till the period specified before they enter their dog-puppies: but it occasionally happens that dogs entered at fifteen months old, if they are large and unset in their limbs, break down under severe work, and are rendered subsequently useless; while others, again, more neat and compact of shape, will run as well at eighteen months as at any later period.

“Men shuld late renne no houndes,” says Duke Edmund, “of what condicions that thei be of, ne nat hunte with hem in to the tyme that thei were a xii mounthis olde and passed, and also thei may hunt but ix yeer at the moost.”

Φυλάττειν δὲ καὶ ἀπὸ ὀχείας.

Columella, who admits the dog and bitch to copulate much earlier than Arrian, is still aware of the mischievous consequences of the practice; De Re Rust. L. vii. c. xii.“si teneris conceditur,” says he, “carpit et corpus et vires, animosque degenerat.”

As to the exact period at which the εὐνῆς ἔργα of Oppian (Hal. i. 532.) should commence, and their probable duration, without risk of breeding from animals too far advanced in years, there is some difference of opinion. According to Pollux,Pollux. L. v. c. vii. ὥρα ἀρίστη κυνῶν πρὸς πλήρωσίν τε καὶ γένεσιν, τῷ μὲν ἄῤῥενι τετάρτου ἔτους ἀρξαμένου, τελευταῖον τὸ ὄγδοον· ἡ δὲ θήλεια τριετὶς, μέχρι ἑξαετίδος συνδυαζέσθω.

“Mares juveniliter usque in annos decem progenerant: post id tempus ineundis fœminis non videntur habiles, quoniam seniorum pigra soboles existit. Fœminæ concipiunt usque in annos novem, nec sunt utiles post decimum,” according to Columella: while PlinyPlin. Hist. Nat. L. viii. c. 40. admits both dog and bitch at a year old—“canum generibus annui partus, justa ad pariendum annua ætas.”

Conrad Gesner cites an ancient, nameless authority, to the following effect: Hist. Quadrup. L. i. De Cane.“Mares quarto anno gignere incipiant, (operâ scilicet hominum admittentium tunc primùm robustioris generandæ sobolis gratiâ,) fœminæ tertio usque in nonum.”

If a courser follow Virgil’s rule as to milch kine, in limiting the age of his brood bitch for the purposes alluded to, he will find it perfectly applicable:

After the fourth year, no greyhound can be depended on for fair running, and therefore may be well spared, to keep up the kennel stock, when no longer useful in the field:

Ἀπὸ τρίτου μὲν ἔτους ἐφίεσθαι—“You shall observe,” says Markham, “to have your dogges and bitches of equal and indifferent ages, as about three or foure years old at the most. But in case of need, your bitch will endure a great deale longer than your dogge, and to breed with a young dogge on an old bitch, may bring forth an excellent whelpe.” Virg. Georg. iii. 96.“Frigidus in Venerem senior—.”

After describing a good-shaped bitch, Nemesian adds:

Gratius would have a general parity of character in both male and female,

And Bargæus agrees with him that the similarity should extend to the essential points of age, shape, and bodily powers:

Columella is mistaken if he intends his observations on breeding in general, (delivered in his chapter on swine-breeding), to apply to the canine race. De Re Rust. L. vii. c. 9.“In omni genere quadrupedum,” says he, “species maris diligenter eligitur, quoniam frequenter patri similior est progenies quàm matri.” Markham’s comparative view of the merits of the male and female in breeding for the Celtic kennel will be found more practically correct. See Countrey Contentments, B.C. C. Booke i. and Countrey Farme, c. xxii. i. The dam should be selected with the greatest attention to shape, pedigree, and character in the field; nor should the same points be disregarded in the sire, but they are not so important in the latter. The chances, however, of producing a good litter are greater in the ratio of excellence (γενναιότης) in both parents, their genealogical distinction, the blood of their “proavorum atavi,” &c. for the reasons stated by the philosophic poet:—

It is evident from what the elder Xenophon says on the accoutrements of the dog, in the sixth chapter of his Cynegeticus, that the Grecian sportsmen took some pains to preserve the purity of breed of certain varieties of the dog. Sharp spikes were attached to the στελμονίαι or body-clothes; ἐγκατεῤῥαμέναι δὲ ἐγκεντρίδες, ἵνα τὰ γένη φυλάττωσι, to prevent promiscuous connexion.

The remarks of the text are defective on the subject of breeding, leaving much to be supplied by experience and reference to other authorities. Arrian, however, was too good a judge of the importance of purity of blood in the greyhound kennel to attend to the mongrel crosses recommended by other cynegetical writers, whose object seems to have been to induce sportsmen to correct the faults or defects of one species by crossing it with another in which the opposite excellencies abounded. The ancients, before the time of Arrian at least, had no idea of correcting the imperfections of individuals of the same species by selecting from it other individuals in which the same defects were not apparent, but rather “a redundancy of the desired excellency, coveted in the imperfect animal.” Such is the plan of Gratius:

Varro, however, speaking of the breed of the shepherd’s dog, says “magni interest ex semine esse canes eodem;” by which he means that it should not be crossed with any hunting breed. But in the “Geoponica” we are cautioned against allowing those of the same litter to have sexual connexion with each other,L. xix. c. i. φυλάττεσθαι μή ποτε οἱ ἐκ τῆς αὐτῆς μητρὸς ὄντες κύνες τῇ πρὸς ἀλλήλους μίξει χρήσαιντο—a circumstance the more remarkable, because breeding in and in (φωνᾶντα συνέτοισι) was general in other animals, though not practised in the canine tribe:

Oppian’s tale to the contrary is not worthy of attention.

The Greek poet of the Chase goes a little farther than his Cynegetical predecessors on the subject of breeding. His concubinage is promiscuous, and he seems indifferent whether the varieties united be both of a mild, or both of a savage disposition, or each different in its type and character. The male and female are to be suited to each other, and of superior excellence—

Then uniting the Arcadian with the Elean, the Cretan with the Pannonian, the Carian with the Thracian, the Tuscan with the Spartan, and the Sarmatian with the Iberian, he concludes with a preference of pure blood:

Belin de Ballu in his “Animadversiones” has evidently mistaken Oppian’s meaning in the latter part of this citation. The poet alludes to an union of the qualities of individuals of the same variety of dog; and not, as supposed by the French critic, to breeding in and in, or proximity of blood, in the same family—a practice as degenerative in the canine race, if persevered in for a length of time, as the Stagirite has observed it to be in the human species. See Aristot. de Rhetoricâ L. ii. c. 17. Brodæus very properly explains μονόφυλα by ἰδιόφυλα in his annotations. And Conrad Gesner, with his usual accuracy, says:Hist. Quad. L. i. p. 259. “Præstantissimi quidem canes in suo quique genere μονόφυλοι sunt, id est, ex unius generis parentibus prognati: verùm superflua venatorum cura miscere etiam diversa genera, quæ quidem innumera sunt, adinvenit.”

Τὰ δὲ καταμήνια ταῖς κυσὶν ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις γίνεται· συμβαίνει δὲ ἅμα καὶ ἔπαρσις αἰδοίου· ἐν δὲ τῷ χρονῷ τουτῷ οὐ προσίενται ὀχείαν, ἀλλ’ ἐν ταῖς μετὰ ταύτας ἑπτὰ ἡμέραις· τὰς γὰρ πάσας δοκεῖ σκυζᾷν ἡμέρας τέτταρας καὶ δέκα ὡς ἐπὶ τὸ πολύ.

The son of Gryllus recommends (c. vii.) the same watchful delay to insure fruitful intercourse: ἄγειν δὲ καταπαυομένας, ἵνα θᾶττον ἐγκύμονες γίγνωνται, πρὸς κύνας ἀγαθούς. The term καταπαυομένας here signifies “when their heat is beginning to remit a little,” and not, as rendered by Blane, “in a quiet manner.”

Ἀγαθὴ δὲ τῇ θηλεία ἡλικία, &c. Marvellous tales are on record of periods much later than the seventh year, in which bitches have given birth to numerous progenies; but Arrian has specified a limited time within which a greyhound bitch may be considered as being at the acme of her bodily powers, and likely to yield such a litter as will not disappoint the expectations of the Veltrarius. To Mr. Pope we are indebted, in his endeavour to reconcile with probability the age of the Homeric Argus,—

for the almost incredible case of a gravid bitch of the age of twenty-two years. After which, we may well exclaim in the words of the Greek naturalist, Ælian. Hist. Animal. L. vii. c. 29.οὔκουν οὐδὲ Ἄργος ὁ κύων μυθοποίημα ἦν, ὦ θεῖε Ὅμηρε, σὸν, οὐδὲ κόμπος ποιητικός!

Xenophon merely says that the dog and bitch should be ἀγαθοὶ, and the Faliscian adds that they be of tried spirit,

Αἱ γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἐμφανεῖ ὁμιλίαι οὐ γόνιμοι. This ridiculous notion, though doubtfully advanced in the manual, is supported by many of the old Cynegetica.

The credulous author of the Cynographia Curiosa adds to the absurdity of the notion by saying, “Si tum videantur canes, venationi inutiles parient,” borrowing the same from the Cynosophium, where such an opinion is said to be the result of long experience. See Cynosoph. c. ii.

κυΐσκεταί τε κύων ἐκ μιᾶς ὀχείας· δῆλον δὲ τοῦτο γίνεται μάλιστα ἐν τοῖς κλέπτουσι τὰς ὀχειάς· ἅπαξ γὰρ ἐπιβάντες πληροῦσι, says the Stagirite: and again he remarks, that the Spartan dog and bitch are more inclined to copulate after exercise, a fact well known to sportsmen: πονήσαντες γὰρ μᾶλλον δύνανται ὀχεύειν, ἢ ἀργοῦντες. (See Scaliger’s note on the passage, L. vi. c. xx.) This circumstance is also noticed by Ælian and Julius Pollux. Indeed the author of the Onomasticon, in a passage that has escaped the observation of commentators, throws considerable light on the text, which is here rather obscure. See L. v. c. vi. 51. of the Onomasticon.

A greyhound bitch may be taken out coursing for ten days after having been warded, but notGratii Cyneg. vs. 286. longer—“Da requiem gravidæ, solitosque remitte labores.” Walking exercise, however, should be continued till the period of parturition arrive.

“Il est prouvé qu’une lice couverte, qu’on laisse au chenil, s’engraisse et s’appésantit en cessant de travailler, et qu’en cet état elle fait ses chiens avec peine, et souvent même elle meurt dans l’opération”—“on la fait promener de tems en tems dehors, par un valet de chiens,” &c. &c.

The period of uterine gestation is in the Celtic greyhound the same as in other varieties of the canine tribe:

Conrad Gesner remarks: “observavi in canibus nostris nonnullas catellas gessisse uterum præcisè diebus 60, nonnullas uno insuper aut duobus. Peregrina leporaria nostra excellens tulit uterum diebus 63.”

Τὸν ἄῤῥενα μὴ ἐφίεναι ἐπὶ λαγών. This caution is unnecessary for modern coursers, who rarely use the same hound in the field and kennel, for coursing the hare, and supplying the pack with high-bred successors. But if the same dog be employed for both purposes, the interval specified for the restoration of his powers is not too long. The Cynosophium, however, suggests a shorter period of 30 days, during which nutritious food is to be administered, and then the stallion hound may be again taken out for sport.

Although the rule has its exceptions, (see Brodæus in Oppianum, p. 42.) Aristotle’s observation, that animals in general ὁρμᾶ πρὸς τὸν συνδυασμὸν in the vernal season, will be found correct.

All the Cynegetica agree with Arrian as to the spring being the most fit season for breeding and rearing puppies.De Venatione. c. vii. Ἡ γὰρ ὥρα πρὸς τὰς αὐξήσεις τῶν κυνῶν κρατίστη αὕτη, says Xenophon; and the same opinion is repeated by the copyists of later date, with little addition. Indeed, the reasons alleged in the text are the best that can be adduced for preferring the spring to any other season:

The Cynosophium specifies January and February as the best breeding months. “La droite saison,” says Fouilloux,La Vénerie. p. 9. “en laquelle doivent naistre est en Mars, Avril, et May, que le temps est tempéré, et que les chaleurs ne sont trop véhémentes.” He gives the same reasons as our author for avoiding summer and autumn, and is, of course, followed verbatim by Turberville. Markham wouldCountrey Contentments. B. i. p. 26. “put them together to ingender and breed, eyther in January, February, or March, according as they shall grow proud; for those are the three most principall monthes in the yeare for hound, bitches, or bratches, to be limed in: not but that they may conceive and bring forth as good whelps in other monthes; but because there will be much losse of time in the entering of them.” He farther enjoins that “the moone be eyther in the signe Aquarius or Gemini; for it is held amongst the best huntsmen of this land, that the whelpes that are ingendred under those two signes, wil never runne mad, and for the most part the litter will have at least double so many dogge whelpes as bitch whelpes.”

Ἄλλως τε καὶ ἀπορίᾳ γάλακτος. The want of this essential article of nutriment renders the winter objectionable for the rearing of whelps; but its abundance in the spring gives to this season an additional claim:

Ὅτι χειμὼν ἐπιλαμβάνει τὰ σκυλάκια. The greyhound puppy is remarkably tender and susceptible of cold; indeed Fronto says that the whelp of the pastoral dog requires to be fostered in warmth,Geoponic. L. xix. c. ii. δυσχείμερον γάρ ἐστι τοῦτο τὸ ζῶον: and if an animal, necessarily of a hardy constitution, be, when young, impatient of severe cold, we shall readily acknowledge the importance of such a seasonable birth for the delicate Celtic whelp, as will give him during his period of growth two summers to one winter.Encyc. Méthod. Les Chasses. p. 139. “Il faut, autant qu’il est possible, faire couvrir les lices à la fin de l’hiver ou au commencement du printems, par la raison que les jeunes chiens, à qui les froids sont toujours nuisibles, ont pour eux deux étés contre un hiver, et qu’en conséquence ils s’élèvent plus aisément.”

It is an essential part of kennel management to support brood bitches with the most nutritious aliment. VarroGeoponic. L. xix. c. i. (in Geoponicis) recommends barley bread, in preference to wheaten, as more nutritious, with mutton broth from bones, &c. poured over the bread, to be given before whelping; and afterwards, barley meal with cow’s or goat’s milk, boiled bones, and water to drink. The same instructions are delivered, almost αὐτολεξεὶ, by Varro, de Re Rusticâ, L. ii. c. ix. In the latter reference, the author expressly says the bitches are more nourished by barley than wheaten bread, “magis eo aluntur, et lactis præbent majorem facultatem.” But the experiments of the late Sir H. Davy on the quantum of nutritious matter contained in the different varieties of bread corn, and the test to which they have been put, in kennel feeding, by practical sportsmen, induce us to believe that the “Scriptores de Re Rusticâ” are mistaken on this point. The farina of wheat is the best food for brood bitches, boiled with milk, or scalded with meat-broth. Of the importance of keeping brood bitches on highly nutritious food, the old huntsman, Pan, “Deus Arcadiæ,” was fully aware; for Diana found him carving a lynx for their repast:

The number of whelps in a litter varies much. The translator’s experience affords instances of twelve at a birth, and of a solitary puppy, from the same Celtic dam. AristotleAristotelis Hist. Animal. L. vi. 286. states the former number to be the greatest in a canine litter; but Julius Cæsar Scaliger (a celebrated dog-fancier) certifies, in his annotations on the Stagirite’s Animal History, a litter of fourteen whelps, as within his own knowledge: and this is again surpassed by the case of the canis leporaria recorded by Aldrovandus,Aldrovandi de Quad. Digit, Vivip. L. iii. “Canis leporaria hic Bononiæ, unicâ fœturâ, catulos septenos supra decem enixa est.”

Μὴ ἐᾲν ἐκτρέφειν αὐτήν. Whether the bitch be again required for the field or not, no humane courser will allow her to suckle more than four or five whelps. If she be young, Columella advises that the first litter should be taken from her:De Re Rust. L. vii. c. 12. “primus effœtæ partus amovendus est, quoniam tiruncula nec rectè nutrit; et educatio totius habitûs aufert incrementum.” Nemesian also destroys the first litter, and the smallest pups of subsequent litters:

“In nutricatu secundum partum,” says Varro, “si plures sunt, statim eligere oportet quos habere velis, reliquos abjicere: quàm paucissimos reliqueris, tam optimi in alendo fiunt propter copiam lactis.” FrontoGeoponic. L. xix. c. 2. also agrees with him, and out of a litter of seven recommends only three or four to be left with the mother; out of three, only two.

Many are the diagnostics, recorded in the ancient Cynegetica, to assist the classic sportsman in selecting the most promising puppies:

Nemesian demands our assent to a novel and somewhat cruel mode of ascertaining the best puppies of a numerous litter, and states that it is founded on actual experiment:

The same diagnostics occur in the Cynosophium of Demetrius, and the Alcon of Fracastorius. The former says, the damCynosoph. c. iii. φυσικῷ τινὶ πόθῳ διακρίσει τὰ βελτίονα, καὶ ἐξάγει, and recommends the refuse to be disposed of by sale or gift, after having been placed under foster-parents. The heavier whelps should be placed, according to this writer, under their own dam. But, of course, our diagnostic canons must vary with each variety of dog.Hist. Quad. L. i. p. 178. De Cane. Gesner reconciles the conflicting opinions of the Greek and Latin Cynegetica, on the selection of puppies, in these words: “ego ita conciliârim, ut ad robur præferendi sunt graviores; ad celeritatem, leviores.”

“Optimus in fœtu,” says Pliny, “qui novissimè cernere incipit, aut quem fert primum in cubile fœta:” and he is supported by the Virgilian poet of Barga—

He condemns the large and heavy pup as likely to be hereafter deficient in speed:

“Touching greyhounds,” says the practical author of Countrey Contentments, “when they are puppies or young whelpes, those which are most raw-boned, leane, loose-made, sickle or crooked hought, and generally unknit in every member, are ever likely to make the best dogges, and most shapely: but such as in the first three or foure monthes, are round, and close trust, fat, straight, and as it were full sum’d and knit in every member, never prove good, swift, or comely.”

The courser, in selecting youngsters from a numerous litter, will not be indifferent to

but will preserve all such “with joy,” while he casts “the dwindling refuse to the merciless flood,” fearful of overloading “the indulgent mother.”

Τὸ γὰρ τῶν ἀγεννῶν γάλα οὐ ξύμφυλον ταῖς γενναίαις. It is difficult to prove that the quality of the milk of varieties of the same species of animal is absolutely different, and productive of effects, beyond its physical nutriment, upon the innate powers and propensities of the young animal supported by it: and yet such an opinion is too much countenanced by naturalists to make us unhesitatingly condemn it as destitute of all foundation. It was a favourite notion of ancient physiologists, and many moral inferences were drawn from it by Galen and others.Noct. Attic. L. xii. c. i. “Non frustrà creditum est,” says A. Gellius, on the authority of the philosopher Favorinus, “sicuti valeat ad fingendas corporis atque animi similitudines vis et natura seminis, non secùs ad eandem rem lactis quoque ingenia et proprietates valere; neque in hominibus id solùm, sed in pecudibus quoque animadversum,” &c. Wherefore Sir Thomas Elyot enjoins, when speaking of nutrication,The Governour. B. i. c. iv. “a nourse shoulde be of no servile condicion, or vyce notable: for as some auncient writers do suppose, oftentymes the chylde sucketh the vyce of hys nouryse with the mylke of her pappe.” See Brathwait’s English Gentleman, p. 94.

Nec unquam eos quorum generosam volumus indolem conservare, patiemur alienæ nutricis uberibus educari; quoniam semper et lac et spiritus maternus longè magis ingenii atque incrementa corporis augent.

Κράτιστον ἐᾷν ὑπὸ τῇ τεκούσῃ.—Arrian here copies his predecessor almost verbatim; but in addition to theDe Venat. c. vii. τὸ γάλα ἀγαθὸν καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα of the former, the latter adds καὶ αἱ περιβολαὶ φίλαι. The classic reader will remember the pathetic address of Andromache in the Troades,

It is true that a foster-mother may “cherish kind—an alien offspring,” and “pleased” we may “behold her tenderness, and hospitable love,” but instances are, I believe, most rare of greyhound puppies, suckled by alien dams of mongrel blood, repaying the courser for the trouble of rearing them.Platonis Menexenus. Πᾶν γὰρ τὸ τεκὸν τροφὴν ἔχει ἐπιτηδείαν ᾧ ἂν τέκῃ: and it is in vain that we make the unnatural attempt, αἱ γὰρ θεραπεῖαι αἱ ἀλλότριαι οὐκ εἰσὶν αὔξιμοι, according to bothEncyclopéd. Méthodique. Les Chasses. p. 140. Xenophons; whereas “les jeunes chiens, nourris par leur propre mère, seroient plus forts et mieux portans que ceux qui sont nourris d’un lait étranger.” “When a bitch hath whelpes,” saysBooke of Hunting, &c. p. 22. Turberville, “let a mastiffe bitch (une matine, Fouilloux) give sucke to one halfe, and you shall find that they will never be so good as those which the damme did bring up.”