nature, I have endeavoured to discover how far our domesticated
quadrupeds evince any choice in their unions. Dogs offer the best
opportunity for observation, as they are carefully attended to and well
understood. Many breeders have expressed a strong opinion on this head.
Thus, Mr. Mayhew remarks, The females are able to bestow their
affections; and tender recollections are as potent over them as they
are known to be in other cases, where higher animals are concerned.
Bitches are not always prudent in their loves, but are apt to fling
themselves away on curs of low degree. If reared with a companion of
vulgar appearance, there often springs up between the pair a devotion
which no time can afterwards subdue. The passion, for such it really
is, becomes of a more than romantic endurance. Mr. Mayhew, who
attended chiefly to the smaller breeds, is convinced that the females
are strongly attracted by males of a large size. (46. Dogs: their
Management, by E. Mayhew, M.R.C.V.S., 2nd ed., 1864, pp. 187-192.) The
well-known veterinary Blaine states (47. Quoted by Alex. Walker, On
Intermarriage, 1838, p. 276; see also p. 244.) that his own female pug
dog became so attached to a spaniel, and a female setter to a cur, that
in neither case would they pair with a dog of their own breed until
several weeks had elapsed. Two similar and trustworthy accounts have
been given me in regard to a female retriever and a spaniel, both of
which became enamoured with terrier-dogs.
Mr. Cupples informs me that he can personally vouch for the accuracy of
the following more remarkable case, in which a valuable and
wonderfully-intelligent female terrier loved a retriever belonging to a
neighbour to such a degree, that she had often to be dragged away from
him. After their permanent separation, although repeatedly shewing milk
in her teats, she would never acknowledge the courtship of any other
dog, and to the regret of her owner never bore puppies. Mr. Cupples
also states, that in 1868, a female deerhound in his kennel thrice
produced puppies, and on each occasion shewed a marked preference for
one of the largest and handsomest, but not the most eager, of four
deerhounds living with her, all in the prime of life. Mr. Cupples has
observed that the female generally favours a dog whom she has
associated with and knows; her shyness and timidity at first incline
her against a strange dog. The male, on the contrary, seems rather
inclined towards strange females. It appears to be rare when the male
refuses any particular female, but Mr. Wright, of Yeldersley House, a
great breeder of dogs, informs me that he has known some instances; he
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