FROM ONE FOX TO ANOTHER 161 



You think me too severe on skirters. I must 

 confess, that I have but one objection to them, and 

 it is this — I have constantly seen them do more harm 

 than good. 



Changing from the hunted fox to a fresh one, is 

 as bad an accident as can happen to a pack of fox- 

 hounds, and requires all the observation and all the 

 ingenuity that man is capable of, to guard against it. 

 Could a fox-hound distinguish a hunted fox as the 

 deer-hound does the deer that is blown, fox-hunting 

 would then be perfect. 1 There are certain rules that 

 ought to be observed by huntsmen. A huntsman 

 should always listen to his hounds while they are 

 running in cover ; he should be particularly attentive 

 to the headmost hounds, and should be constantly on 

 his guard against a skirter ; for, if there be two scents, 

 he must be wrong. Generally speaking, the best scent 

 is least likely to be that of the hunted fox ; and as a 

 fox seldom suffers hounds to run up to him as long as 



themselves of that, which, if kept, would be prejudicial to them. The 

 critic seems to allude to a well-known fable of ^Esop, but is not very 

 happy in the application. He has also misquoted the passage — the 

 author does not say tire, but tie upon the scent. — Good hounds, when 

 they become aged, are liable to the first ; bad ones only, are guilty of 

 the last. In either case, death is not meant as a punishment, nor is it 

 considered as a misfortune. — Vide Monthly Review. 



\} This is a point on which we cannot quite agree with the author. 

 Some hounds can and undoubtedly do distinguish between the scent of 

 the run fox and that of a fresh one. It is a very delicate power of 

 perception, and is often lost by a pack being continually holloaed on to 

 fresh foxes. There is also no doubt that a fox's scent changes as he 

 becomes tired, and the hounds to know this must be those that have had 

 continual experience in catching their foxes. When a fox is getting 

 tired and the scent is growing weaker, a pack that is out of blood will 

 not persevere and try without considerable encouragement.] 



M 



