276 THE AMERICAN BOOK OF THE DOG. 



others whose names are equally familiar, but which slip my 

 mind at the present moment. The writer also prides him- 

 self in his own kennel, in which he usually has eight or 

 ten or more Beagles. 



It is scarcely possible .to bestow too much praise on this 

 little Hound, which has advanced more in popularity dur- 

 ing the last few years among sportsmen in this country 

 than has any other breed of field dogs. .This is the natural 

 result of our sportsmen becoming familiar, by degrees, with 

 the value of this Hound for field purposes. 



As civilization encroaches upon the haunts of the fox 

 and the deer, causing them to decrease in numbers, sports- 

 men who have heretofore hunted them with large Hounds, 

 discover that as this game grows scarce it is better hunted 

 with the Beagle. Col. F. GK Skinner, than whom no more 

 ardent sportsman or Hound man is to be found among us, 

 always advocates the Beagle in preference to Fox or other 

 Hounds for foxes and deer in sections where they are scarce 

 or are hunted to the gun, and for foxes when hunted with 

 the gun, as in the Northern and New England States. This 

 is owing to the fact that, not being so fast as the larger 

 Hounds, they give better opportunity for shots, and, par- 

 ticularly where the game is scarce, they do not frighten it 

 so as to drive it far away, to remain perhaps for days, as 

 the larger Hounds do. Doctor Downey, of Maryland, and 

 his friends always use their Beagles in preference to larger 

 Hounds when they go on their annual deer- hunt to West 

 Virginia. 



Thus, it will be seen that the Beagle is not only growing 

 in popularity as we become more intimately acquainted 

 with his value, but it is also in the natural order of events 

 for him to grow in favor with us as game becomes scarcer. 



Although the Beagle is too slow for fox-hunting, in 

 some parts of the country, as, for instance, in the South, it 

 is also used with success for that sport, and preferred by 

 many to a larger Hound in localities where the foxes are 

 hunted to the gun, for reasons herein later explained. The 

 writer was some time ago informed by an acquaintance 



