198 BRITISH DOGS 



loin. ; you should be able, if necessary, to carry home in a 

 shooting-coat pocket any member of your pack. Then even rabbit- 

 hunting will give you and your friends many an hour's amusement 

 and drive away many an ache and pain." 



Another variety is the Rough, or Wire-haired, Beagle. The 

 absolute purity of his descent is doubtful, a cross more or less remote 

 of the Terrier or the Otterhound being generally alleged. He is, 

 however, a quaint, hard little hound found useful in a very rough 

 country, and should in all respects be a copy of the ordinary Beagle, 

 excepting for a stiff, dense, wiry coat. He is now seldom seen 

 at shows or in the hare-hunting packs. A revival is urgently 

 needed if the variety is to be rescued from oblivion, and it is well 

 worth the attention of breeders. 



The Kerry Beagle is in reality not a Beagle at all, usually 

 a black-and-tan hound the size of a Foxhound, and with much of 

 the appearance and many of the characteristics of the old Southern 

 Hound. The breed is seldom seen in England, and only occasionally 

 met with in Ireland. These hounds are reputed to be very musical 

 and most persistent workers. 



To start a pack of Beagles is an easy matter, but to form one 

 typical of the breed in appearance and manner of work, requires 

 skill, knowledge, and time. Apparently a favourite method is to 

 buy a hound here and another there; this usually results in an 

 interesting collection of all the field faults to which Beagles are 

 liable, and a process of weeding out has to be commenced during 

 the very first season. The writer has known a pack formed in 

 this way with some success ; but the Master was a man of con- 

 siderable resolution and long hunting experience. He knew exactly 

 what he wanted, bought cheaply, and discarded at once every hound 

 having bad faults in the field, however good-looking or suitable 

 for show. Let the future Master (having made up his mind what 

 it is he wants) attach himself to one of the leading packs of the 

 height he has selected ; let him mark a few bitches which take 

 his fancy for both work and appearance, ascertain that the pedigree 

 includes hounds of about the same size, and at the end of the 

 season let him try and induce the Master, by the offer of a stiff 

 price, if necessary, to let him have them with which to start his 

 pack. He, of course, will not get them all, and is unlikely to get 

 the best, but will probably be able to secure something worth 

 having. 



The next step will be to obtain a dog hound of different blood, 

 and too much care cannot be taken about his selection, for he can 

 make or mar your future pack. If your bitches are of a rather 

 larger strain than you intend to keep, see that the dog comes from 

 a smaller, and it is, as a rule, better policy to breed from the large 



