CHAP. 62.—THE GENERATION OF THE DOG. [1]

This animal brings forth twice in the year; it is capable of bearing young when a year old, and gestation continues for sixty days. The young ones are born blind, and the greater the supply of nourishment from the mother's milk, the more slowly do they acquire their sight; still, however, this never takes place later than the twentieth day, or earlier than the seventh. It is said by some writers, that if only one is born, it is able to see on the ninth day; and that if there are two, they begin to see on the tenth, every additional one causing the power of seeing to come a day later. It is said, too, that the females which are produced by the mother in her first litter, are subject to the night-mare.[2] The best dog of the litter is the one which is last in obtaining its sight, or else the one which the mother carries first into her bed.

1. These statements are probably, for the most part, from Aristotle, Hist. Anim, B. v. c. 14, and B. vi. c. 20.—B.

2. "Faunos cerni." Hardouin remarks on these words; "Flitting before the sight, and rushing upon each other, like the Ephialtes," and refers, for a farther explanation, to his commentary on the passage in B. xxv. c. 10, where the subject is treated more at large. The Ephialtes is generally supposed to have been what we term incubus or nightmare.—B.