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stern. It is a messy, dirty and tedious job to dress 

 thoroughly a pack of hounds, but it is worth the 

 trouble, for, although the pack may look unsightly for 

 a time, it will be all the better for it later on. 



The mating of bitches will have been a problem 

 that has occupied the huntsman's mind all the winter, 

 when, if he has been wise, he will have set down the 

 bitches he intends breeding from with the sires he 

 decides to put them to. Otherwise, bitches will 

 come unexpectedly in season, and he will have to 

 make a hurried choice without giving the matter suffi- 

 cient thought. The huntsman of a four-day-a-week 

 pack has few opportunities of selecting suitable sires 

 from outside sources by watching their work in the 

 field, and must rely for hunting characters on what he 

 is told. As no one likes to admit keeping a hound 

 that is not altogether satisfactory in his work, answers 

 to questions on that point cannot always be depended 

 on. The result is that most huntsmen make their 

 choice of a sire in a foreign kennel entirely on looks, 

 trusting that if he is a second or third season hound 

 he would not have been kept if he had any glaring 

 fault. In breeding hounds for hunting, and not for 

 showing, it would perhaps be safest to go to a pack 

 noted for its looks, and pick out the ugliest specimen. 

 In reply to the question as to why this " ugly duck- 

 ling " had been kept, it would probably be found 

 because he was the best fox catcher of the lot. It is a 

 very laudable ambition to try and improve or at least 

 retain the good looks of a pack, but " the proof of the 

 pudding is in the eating," and the hound that can go 

 fast and is fresh at the end of a long day when others 

 are tiring cannot have much wrong with his confor- 

 mation. One that has proved his speed and stamina 



