Note 229 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
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:
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.
De Re Rust. L. ii. c. 9.
“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:
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:
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.
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.”
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—
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:
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.
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.”