WHELPS.—The produce of hounds during their first months are termed _whelps_; the young of other sporting dogs are in general called _puppies_. Those who are intent upon forming a hunting establishment, will, in laying the foundation, recollect, that hounds are very frequently to be purchased for considerably less money than they can be bred. The pack once obtained, breeding then becomes indispensibly necessary for the proper support of the stock, and the acquisition of superior excellence; by possessing the annual convenience of entering young, and rejecting old, till the body become perfectly complete. The business of breeding is considered so very material to the sporting reputation of the establishment, that, by amateurs and professed sportsmen, it is conducted with a systematic circumspection, and most judicious discrimination. Uniformity in size, shape, make, colour, speed, and constitution, are leading perfections, which should never be lost sight of. MR. BECKFORD, who seems to have understood the chase much better than any writer that has ever promulgated an opinion upon the subject, has laid down some precautionary rules, from which the emulous and the prudent will seldom deviate. In a well-regulated and extensive hunting establishment, no less than nine or ten couple of whelps should be annually bred to keep up a regular supply: the distemper sometimes making dreadful havoc amongst the whelps, as well as age and infirmities amongst the old hounds, if a proper number of recruits were not always ready, much mortifying disappointment might probably ensue. Whenever it can be so contrived, the whelps should appear between the second or third week in February, and the middle of the month of March; they have then nothing to encounter from the cold severity of the winter season, and the ensuing summer to bask, expand, and grow in. It is on all hands admitted injudicious to breed from hounds with palpable imperfections: weak hounds, babblers, skirters, slow, and tardy-tongued hounds, should always be rejected. An old dog should never be put to an old bitch; nor should either dog or bitch be in an unhealthy state, lest the offspring should be eventually affected.