Note 228 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.

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.”