Part 24
Chapter 24 of 32 · 14 min read
[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Sur les Chasses, p. 140.]
“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:
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 130.]
Mox cum se bina formârit lampade Phœbe Ex quo passa marem genitalia viscera turgent, Fœcundos aperit partus matura gravedo Continuò, largâque vides strepere omnia prole!
[Sidenote: Hist. Quadrup. De Cane.]
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.
[Sidenote: Virgil. Georg. +iii.+ 272.]
Vere magis, quià vere calor redit ossibus.
[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. L. +i.+ vs. 473.]
εἴαρι δὲ γλυκὺς οἶστρος ἀναγκαίης Ἀφροδίτης καὶ γάμοι ἡβώωσι, καὶ ἀλλήλων φιλότητες πᾶσιν ὅσοι γαῖάν τε φερέσβιον, αἵ τ’ ἀνὰ κόλπους ἠέρος, οἵ τ’ ἀνὰ πόντον ἐριβρύχην δονέονται.
[Sidenote: De Venatione. c. +vii.+]
All the Cynegetica agree with Arrian as to the spring being the most fit season for breeding and rearing puppies. 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:
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. L. +i.+ v. 375.]
εἰ δὲ νύ τοι κεράσαι φίλον ἔπλετο δῖα γένεθλα, εἴαρι μὲν πρώτιστα λέχος πόρσυνε κύνεσσιν.
[Sidenote: La Vénerie. p. 9.]
[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 26.]
The Cynosophium specifies January and February as the best breeding months. “La droite saison,” says Fouilloux, “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 would “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:
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 158.]
passim nam lactis abundans Tempus adest, albent plenis et ovilia mulctris.
[Sidenote: Geoponic. L. +xix.+ c. +ii.+]
[Sidenote: Encyc. Méthod. Les Chasses. p. 139.]
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, 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. “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.”
[Sidenote: Geoponic. L. +xix.+ c. +i.+]
It is an essential part of kennel management to support brood bitches with the most nutritious aliment. Varro (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:
[Sidenote: Callimach. H. in Dian.]
——ἵκεο δ’ αὖλιν Ἀρκαδικὴν ἐπὶ Πανός ὁ δὲ κρέα λυγκὸς ἔταμνε Μαιναλίης, ἵνα οἱ τοκάδες κύνες εἶδαρ ἔδοιεν.
[Sidenote: Aristotelis Hist. Animal. L. +vi.+ 286.]
[Sidenote: Aldrovandi de Quad. Digit, Vivip. L. +iii.+]
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. Aristotle 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, “Canis leporaria hic Bononiæ, unicâ fœturâ, catulos septenos supra decem enixa est.”
[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 12.]
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: “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:
[Sidenote: Cyneget. vs. 134.]
Sed quamvis avidus, primos contemnere partus Malueris, mox non omnes nutrire minores. Nam tibi si placitum populosos poscere fœtus, Jam macie tenues, succique videbis inanes, Pugnantesque diu, quisnam prior ubera lambat, Distrahere invalidam lassato viscere matrem.
[Sidenote: De Re Rust. L. +ii.+ c. 9.]
[Sidenote: Geoponic. L. +xix.+ c. 2.]
“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.” Fronto 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:
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneget. vs. 287.]
tum deinde monebo, Ne matrem indocilis natorum turba fatiget, Percensere notis, jamque inde excernere parvos. Signa dabunt ipsæ, teneris vix artubus hæret Ille tuos olim non defecturus honores: Jamque illum impatiens æquæ vehementia sortis Extulit, affectat maternâ regna sub alvo. Ubera tota tenet, à tergo liber aperto, Dum tepida indulget terris clementia mundi. Verum ubi Caurino perstrinxit frigore vesper Ira jacet, turbâque potens operitur inerti. Illius è manibus vires sit cura futuras Perpensare: leveis deducet pondere fratres: Nec me pignoribus, nec te mea carmina fallent.
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:
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneget. vs. 144.]
quæ prodidit usus Percipe, et intrepidus spectatis annue dictis. Pondere nam catuli poteris perpendere vires, Corporibusque leves gravibus prænoscere cursus. Quin et flammato ducatur linea longè Circuitu, signetque habilem vapor igneus orbem. Impunè in medio possis consistere circo. Hùc omnes catuli, hùc indiscreta feratur Turba, dabit mater partus examine honestos, Judicio natos servans, trepidoque perîclo. Nam postquam conclusa videt sua germina flammis, Continuo saltu transcendens fervida zonæ Vincla, rapit rictu primum, portatque cubili; Mox alium, mox deinde alium. Sic conscia mater Segregat egregiam sobolem virtutis amore.
[Sidenote: Cynosoph. c. +iii.+]
[Sidenote: Hist. Quad. L. +i.+ p. 178. De Cane.]
The same diagnostics occur in the Cynosophium of Demetrius, and the Alcon of Fracastorius. The former says, the dam 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. 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.”
[Sidenote: Hist. Nat. L. +viii.+ c. 40.]
“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—
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
Namque ea quem secum tulit in stramenta, toroque Composuit primum, primoque affecit honore, Ille alios omnes cursuque animisque superbis Vincet ovans, simul ac loris exire solutis Quiverit, et saltu transgressus inania campi Intervalla cito diffugerit ocyus Euro.
He condemns the large and heavy pup as likely to be hereafter deficient in speed:
[Sidenote: Ejusdem L. +v.+]
Continuò cujus subsidunt pondere membra Atque artus major moles gravat, ille volucri Insuetus cursu longè post ultima fratrum Terga relinquetur, frustraque optabit adempta Præmiaque, et multo perfusam sanguine prædam.
[Sidenote: Markham’s Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 48.]
“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
The marks of their renown’d progenitors— Sure pledge of triumphs yet to come;
but will preserve all such “with joy,” while he casts “the dwindling refuse to the merciless flood,” fearful of overloading “the indulgent mother.”
[Sidenote: Noct. Attic. L. +xii.+ c. +i.+]
[Sidenote: The Governour. B. +i.+ c. +iv.+]
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. “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, “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.
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +i.+ 435.]
εἰ δὲ νύ τοι πινυτὴ σκυλακοτροφίη μεμέληται, μή ποτ’ ἀμέλγεσθαι σκύλακας νεοθηλέϊ μαζῷ αἰγῶν, ἢ προβάτων, μηδ’ οἰκιδίησι κύνεσσιν ἦ γάρ τοι νωθροί τε καὶ οὐτιδανοὶ βαρύθοιεν.
[Sidenote: Columel. de R. R. L. +vii.+ c. 12.]
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.
[Sidenote: De Venat. c. +vii.+]
Κράτιστον ἐᾷν ὑπὸ τῇ τεκούσῃ.—Arrian here copies his predecessor almost verbatim; but in addition to the 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,
[Sidenote: Euripidis Troad. vs. 766.]
ὦ νέον ὑπαγκάλισμα μητρὶ φίλτατον, ὦ χρωτὸς ἡδὺ πνεῦμα!
[Sidenote: Platonis Menexenus.]
[Sidenote: Encyclopéd. Méthodique. Les Chasses. p. 140.]
[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting, &c. p. 22.]
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. 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 both 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,” says 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.”
[Sidenote: Oppian. Cyneg. +iii.+ 107.]
ἦ ῥα τόσον τέκεών τε, καὶ ἀρτιγόνοιο γενέθλης φίλτρον ἐνὶ κραδίῃ στάξεν θεός τόσσον ῥα φύσις κρατερώτατον ἄλλων.
Χρὴ γάλακτι ἀνατρέφειν αὐτά. See Ch. +viii.+ where he also speaks of milk food; and Xenophon. de Venat. c. +vii.+ 4. The latter recommends milk for the first year: καὶ οἷς μέλλει τὸν ἅπαντα χρόνον βιώσεσθαι, ἄλλο δὲ μηδέν—αἱ γὰρ βαρεῖαι πλησμοναὶ τῶν σκυλακίων διαστρέφουσι σκέλη, σώμασι νόσους ἐμποιοῦσι, καὶ τὰ ἐντὸς ἄδικα γίγνεται.
[Sidenote: Gratii Cyneg. vs. 304.]
tum denique fœtû Cum desunt, operis fregitque industria matres, Transeat in catulos omnis tutela relictos. Lacte novam pubem, facilique tuebere mazâ. Nec luxus alios avidæque impendia vitæ Noscant.
[Sidenote: Columella De Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 2.]
Columella also, and the Carthaginian poet, administer milk to the young fry, and Pollux with his copyist Paullini adds thereto the blood of the game to which the hounds are to be afterwards entered; “Quod si effœta lacte deficitur, caprinum maximè conveniet præberi catulis, dum fiant mensium quatuor:”
[Sidenote: Nemesian. Cyneg. vs. 161.]
Interdumque cibo cererem cum lacte ministra, Fortibus ut succis teneras complere medullas Possint, et validas jam tunc promittere vires.
[Sidenote: Cynograph. Curiosa. p. 33.]
“Probè autem despiciendum,” says the credulous physician of Eisenach, on the authority of Julius Pollux, “cui generi singulos applicare velis, ut eorum animalium, quæ venationi sunt destinata, sanguinem cum offis statim post ablactationem subministres,” &c.
[Sidenote: =Mayster of Game.= c. +xii.+ fol. 51.]
“Thei hav grete nede of hur dame,” according to Duke Edmund, “in to the tyme that thei be ij monethis olde, and than thei shuld be fedde with gootis mylke or with kowes mylk and cromes of brede ymade smale and put there inne; and specially in the morowe and at nyght by cause that ye. nyght is more cold than the day and also men shuld geve hem crommes in fflesh brothe and in this wise men may norfshe hem tyl thei be of half yeere olde.”
[Sidenote: Blondus de Canibus, &c.]
Largus victus solet esse maximo damno.
[Sidenote: Oppian. Halieut. L. +i.+ 719.]
It very rarely happens that the κύων ἀρτιτόκος is deficient in milk for six or eight weeks after the birth of her progeny;
[Sidenote: Lucretii L. +v.+ 805.]
fœmina quæque Cum peperit dulci repletur lacte, quod omnis Impetus in mammas convertitur ille alimenti:
but if the puppies do not thrive on the nutriment they derive from their dam, it is probably deficient in quantity, and should be dispensed with altogether as soon as they will lap cow’s milk sufficient for their support.
[Sidenote: P. Angelii Bargæi Cyneg. L. +v.+]
Tum tu adeò (nam tempus erit) jam parce parenti, Exhaustis parce uberibus. Sed mollia nondum Subducenda tamen natis alimenta, sed haustu Pascendi lactis, cujus mulctralia pingues Implerunt vaccæ, et redeuntes rure capellæ.
[Sidenote: Booke of Hunting, p. 22.]
Turberville says, “the longer they tast of their dammes teat, the more they shall take of her complexion and nature.” And when weaned, “it is best,” he remarks, “to bring them up abroad with milke, bread, and all sorts of pottages, and you shall understand that to bring them up in villages of the country, is much better than to bring them up in a butcherie:” “aux villages, et non aux boucheries,” Fouilloux p. 9.
[Sidenote: Lord Bacon’s Nat. History. Cent. +iv.+]
How close is the analogy “touching the acceleration of growth and stature,” in the human and canine subject! In breeding for the kennel, Lord Bacon’s observations may be turned to some account. “Excess of nourishment,” says he, “is hurtful; for it maketh the child corpulent, and growing in breadth rather than in height.” “The nature of it may not be too dry, and therefore children in dairy countries do wax more tall, than where they feed more upon bread and flesh;” “over-dry nourishment in childhood putteth back stature.” Upon which principle Albertus Magnus orders liquid food for the dog, because his temperament is dry.
[Sidenote: Countrey Contentments. B. +i.+ p. 27.]
It is seldom that the practical courser will differ from the advice of old Gervase Markham; but when he says, “if the house you keep be of great receite, and many servants, you shall let your cooke bring up your whelpes, and your dairy-maide your second best, and the rest you shall put forth amongst your friends or tenants, according unto the love you possesse in the country,” I am inclined to invert the merits of the respective claimants on the litter, placing la cuisinière at the bottom of the list.
[Sidenote: Somerville. The Chace. B. +iv.+]
————unto thy choicest friends Commit thy valued prize: the rustic dames Shall at thy kennel wait, and in their laps Receive thy growing hopes, with many a kiss Caress, and dignify their little charge With some great title, and resounding name Of high import.
[Sidenote: Columella de Re Rust. L. +vii.+ c. 12.]
See Xenophon de Venat. c. +vii.+ 5. All the names left us by Xenophon, Arrian, and Columella, are dissyllabical. Nominibus autem non longissimis appellandi sunt, quo celeriùs quisque vocatus exaudiat; nec tamen brevioribus, quàm quæ duabus syllabis enuntientur. Oppian names his puppies, while young and tractable, νηπιάχοι:
[Sidenote: Cyneg. +i.+ 443.]
αὐτὰρ νηπιάχοισιν ἐπ’ οὐνόματα σκυλάκεσσι βαιὰ τίθει, θοὰ πάντα, θοὴν ἵνα βάξιν ἀκούῃ.
By which Gesner supposes the names should be “oxytona.” Natalis Comes agrees with his predecessors:
[Sidenote: De Venat. L. +i.+]
ponantur nomina cuique Certa cani, teneatque ad summum syllaba bina: Protinùs ut noscat voces, et verba vocantum.
The indefatigable German naturalist has alphabetically arranged all the classic names of the Greek and Roman kennels that have descended to us. We find in his canine vocabulary, those of Xenophon, Ovid, Columella, and others of ancient days; and some from Blondus (of which Gesner disapproves) of more modern use. Hyginus has a copious list of canine appellatives in his 181st fable, entitled “Diana.” And one of the most chaste poets of the fifteenth century supplies the kennel with
[Sidenote: Hercules Stroza.]
bona naribus Heuresiïchne, Theragus, Ocypete, Thoissa, Melæna, Cylindus, Chætodesque hirtus setis, domitorque ferarum Theridamas, veloxque Lagois, et ocyor illa Protodomus, longoque legens compendia passu Macrobates, Leuconque rapaci et cum Harpage Theron.
Εἰ δὲ μή πω ἐθέλοις σκυλακεῦσαι. Schneider is of opinion that Arrian is here cautioning the courser against running a bitch, whom it has been deemed prudent to put aside from taking the dog, and whose milk-vessels are distended towards the close of the period of gestation, as if she were actually pregnant. This interpretation is ingenious, and may be tenable; but as I find no such caution in any ancient author, and have never seen any mischief accrue from running a bitch at the time alluded to, (though her speed is certainly impaired by the constitutional plethora of the period;) and, moreover, as it magnifies a very unimportant circumstance in the physical condition of the bitch, and is, on the whole, rather a far-fetched interpretation, I have followed Blancard and Zeune in the more usual acceptation of the verb σκυλακεύειν, i. e. catulos nutrire. No man in his senses would think of coursing a brood bitch while in the state described in the text.
