HARE-HUJfTING. 759 



tain the goodness of the hounds, which may be known with 

 more precision from the fevj foxes they Zo5^, than from the num- 

 ber they kill. In some countries where foxes are very hard to 

 be killed, and not readily found, it is certain they are always 

 stoutest where game and rabbits do not abound : in those 

 countries they have to seek their food further off, and seldom 

 go to their kennels with a gorged stomach ; a dozen brace 

 of foxes in such haunts are considered a fair quantity : in 

 an adjoining country full of game, or in other respects more 

 favourable, a pack of hounds will possibly kill twice the 

 number : is it to be at once inferred they are twice as good '? 

 " Those huntsmen who are so fond of unnecessarily getting 

 blood and wasting foxes, would doubtless have been much 

 gratified at the hunting-match given by the Prince Ester- 

 hazy, Regent of Hungary, upon the signing of the treaty of 

 peace with France, a day's sport that bids fair to vie in 

 point of blood (if the King of Naples' slaughter be excepted) 

 with any of those recorded in modern history, as there were 

 killed 160 deer, 100 wild boars, 300 hares, and 80 foxes. 

 The king had a larger extent, and a longer period for the 

 exercise of his talents, and it was proved that during his 

 journey to Vienna, in Austria, Bohemia, and Moravia, he 

 killed 5 bears, 1820 boars, 1960 deer, 1145 does, 1625 roe- 

 bucks, 1121 rabbits, 13 wolves, 17 badgers, 16,354 hares, 

 and ^6^ foxes. The monarch had likewise the pleasure of 

 doing a little in the bird-way, by killing on the same expe- 

 dition 15,350 pheasants, and 12,335 partridges." 



HAHE-HUNTING. 



Hare-hunting is a sport of great antiquity. Xenophon, 

 who flourished 350 years before the Christian era, has, in his 

 writings, recorded many observations on it. This recreative 

 amusement is more generally pursued than fox-hunting, and 



