A variety of opinions are held, and occasionally propagated, upon the best and most proper age for putting a mare to horse: that a FILLY covered in her third year, will produce a fine healthy foal in her fourth, is sufficiently known; and that BROOD MARES bring forth excellent stock from their twentieth to their twenty-fifth year, is equally true; but if the two extremes are avoided (when it can be conveniently done so) the produce may most likely come some few shades nearer perfection. In the first instance it is fair to infer, that the component parts may not have reached the extreme points of STRENGTH and MATURITY; and that in the latter, from the natural effect of AGE, the frame is verging upon decay; and that the LACTEALS from whence the NUTRIMENT for the FOAL is to be obtained, must be contracted in proportion.

The best and most approved season for letting the mare take the horse, where the produce is bred for general purposes, is from the first week in May to the last in June; as then the offspring is dropt in April or May in the following year, and are the properest months a foal can fall in, to have the advantage of all the summer for growth and expansion, preparatory to the drawback of WEANING, and the ensuing severity of the winter. Mares during the time of GESTATION, are liable, but very little subject to ABORTION; reasonable work, and moderate exertions, affect them but slightly in that way; nor does the disappointment but seldom happen, unless by some severe, cruel, or inhuman treatment. Mares are the most uncertain of all animals in bringing forth from the time of conception. Numerous attempts have been made to discover the precise time of a mare's carrying her foal, which, however, does not yet appear to have been ascertained to a certainty. Long-standing opinions and authority, transmitted from one posterity to another, has established at eleven months and as many days as the mare happens to be years old: strict attention, in a variety of instances, to both the LUNAR and CALENDAR months, has proved the uncertainty of this calculation, and left them, in those events, dependent upon neither one or the other. Certain it is, they go many days longer with a COLT FOAL than they do with a FILLY; and cases frequently occur, where a mare carries her foal within a few days of the twelve months.

MARK!

—a term used by SPORTSMEN, particularly in COVERT SHOOTING, where they are necessarily separated from each other; when one of the party, having sprung a PHEASANT, or flushed a COCK, (at which he either did not get a shot, or missed his aim,) he then vociferates the signal, MARK! in a hope his companion may get a shot, or mark the spot near where he alights, to insure a better chance of his recovery. It is also used in partridge shooting, where hedges or hedge-rows interrupt the sight, or divide the parties.

MARK in the MOUTH

.—The black cavity in the TEETH of a HORSE, by which his age is correctly known till seven years old, is called the mark; when which is obliterated, the age can be no longer precisely ascertained. Dealers adopt a successful mode of deception, by which the young and inexperienced are frequently imposed upon. See Bishoping and Colt.

MARK ANTHONY

,—the name of a horse of some celebrity as a RACER, and equal to any horse of his time: he was bred by Mr. C. Blake, and foaled in 1767: he was got by that known good horse Spectator (who was got by Crab) out of Rachel, (who was got by Blank;) her dam by Regulus, grand-dam by Soreheels. He acquired some reputation as a STALLION, and was the sire of several good runners.

MARSK

—was a horse whose distinguished celebrity arose more from chance than any peculiar merits of his own. He was bred by the then Duke of Cumberland; was foaled in 1750; got by Squirt, (who was got by Bartlet's Childers;) dam by Blacklegs, grand-dam by Fox Cub. Although his blood and racing ability stood fairly admitted, yet, so far from having acquired any reputation as a STALLION, he was permitted to COVER common mares at the Lodge, in Windsor Great Park, for only half-a-guinea, which was the GROOM'S FEE. Precisely at this period (in the year 1763) Spilletta, the dam of Eclipse, having proved barren for two or three years in succession, a new experiment was made, and she was covered by both Shakespeare and Marsk in the same season; when stinted, and some time after perceptibly in foal, it was uncertain who was to be declared the SIRE, till the produce falling to correspond with the last leap from Marsk, he became (from Eclipse's astonishing powers) loaded with honours, publicly acknowledged the sire with an enhanced reputation, and a constantly increasing seraglio; from which time he continued a stallion of the first eminence, and produced a progeny of winners by much too long for introduction under this head. Spilletta afterwards produced Proserpine by Marsk, foaled in 1766; and that well-known horse Garrick, foaled in 1772; both excellent runners.