When the whelps are able to crawl to a certain distance, it will be time to mark them, according to their respective litters, some on the ear and others on the lip. The dew-claws should be removed, and, usually, a small tip from the tail. Their names also should be recorded. The whelps will begin to lap very soon after they can look about them, and should remain with the mother until they are fully able to take care of themselves. They may then be prepared to go to quarters. Two or three doses of physic should be given to the mother, with intervals of four or five days between each: this will prepare her to return to the kennel. There is often considerable difficulty in disposing of the whelps until they get old and stout enough to be brought into the kennel. They are mostly sent to some of the neighbouring cottages, in order to be taken care of; but they are often neglected and half starved there. In consequence of this, distemper soon appears, and many of them are lost. Whelps 'walked', or taken care of at butchers' houses, soon grow to a considerable size; but they are apt to be heavy-shouldered and throaty, and perhaps otherwise deformed. There is some doubt whether it might not be better for the sportsman to take the management of them himself, and to have a kennel built purposely for them. It may, perhaps, be feared that the distemper will get among them: they would, however, be well fed, and far more comfortable than they now are; and, as to the distemper, it is a disease that they must have some time or other. From twenty to thirty couples are quite as many as can be easily managed; and the principal consideration is, whether they are steady, and as nearly as possible equal of speed. When the packs are very large, the hounds are seldom sufficiently hunted to be good. Few persons choose to hunt every day, or, if they did, it is not likely that the weather would permit them. The sportsman would, therefore, be compelled to take an inconvenient number into the field, and too many must be left behind. In the first place, too many hounds in the field would frequently spoil the sport; and, on the other hand, the hounds that remained would get out of wind, or become riotous, or both. Hounds, to be useful and good, should be constantly hunted; but a great fault in many packs is their having too many old dogs among them.