THE IIUUXDS. 175 



easily ilisluibed from iheir work. The field being somewhat scattered, tlie 

 hare, or a fresh one, is sure to be seen by some one, then a " h'jlla-b.ick '' is 

 to be feared. Mounds hunt to kill, and when at fault will readily run to a 

 distant holla. The R. R. Beaglers have been trained not to shout when 

 they see a hare, but if they feel sure that it is the hunted hare, they may 

 hold up a hat as a hint to the huntsman to take if he likes. I'arm labourers 

 mostly those working on the tops of haystacks) have a knack of hallooing 

 at great distances, and cannot be suppresseil by gestures, or a shout of 

 " hold your noise." This is very disgusting, as it makes the hounds ihro.v 

 their heads up, and may lead to losing the line ; it is also a temptation to 

 the huntsman to lift his hounds, which is against the canons of hare hunting. 



Tlie poor hare has many little tricks which she tries in order to throw 

 off the fierce brutes behind her, and it is only fair that the hounds should 

 have to follow out, step by step, the line she has lakeii, unaided by man, 

 except in so tar as the huntsman's casts may do so. As we rarely have the 

 good fortune to get a straight-going hare in front of us, and the field soon 

 scatter all over the place, the hare in coming back in iicr ring is sure to be 

 viewed, and thus an unfair aid may be given to the hounds. If the field 

 could all keep fairly well up with the hounds, and the country for a few 

 miles round be temporarily denuded of its human inhabitants, we should 

 rarely have a kill. As it is, the hare escapes three times out of four. 



It is an undoubted fact that we do not now have so many kills in a 

 season as in the early days of the R.R.B. In the first five seasons the 

 average was nineteen brace, and in the seaaon 1850/51 as many as twenty- 

 four and a half ; the average of late years is about ten to twelve brace. It 

 will be interesting to attempt an examination into the cause of this. Tinley 

 Larton, the first Master of the hounds, on being recently asked tor an ex- 

 planation, said he though the reason was that V. A. King selected his 

 hounds for individual beauty of coat or feature, and not with a view to 

 hunting qualities. But this reason will not satisfy the enquiring mind, as it 

 takes no account of the fact that we have had over ten years in which great 

 attention has been paid to having hounds with good noses, and still our kills 

 are comparatively few. We can safely assert that the hounds now are as 

 good as ever they were. Why then did they run to a kill twice as often in 

 the forties as they do in the nineties? The country is in much the same 

 condition, except that the roads are better kept ; the weather varies in a 

 similar manner. Are we to think that the hares are better and stronger? 

 There can be little doubt that here lies the explanation. We know that 

 when we take our hounds to other countries, like Chiik or Bala, the people 

 of the neighbourhood do not expect us to kill a strong mountain hare, and 

 as a matter of fact we rarely do so, though we have run them for hours, till 

 our hounds were tired out. 



