FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



advantage of the fox. Again, despite the fact 

 that motors are usually sent home at once by 

 those who use them to go to the meet, there are 

 others on the roads driven by people who do not 

 ride, but like to see as much of a run as possible 

 from the highway. Motor-cycles too are every- 

 where, and these, combined with cars, save many 

 a fox by causing hounds to check at a critical 

 moment. It is bad enough for hounds to pick 

 up a line foiled by a crowd of sweating horses, 

 but much harder for them to do so at a point on or 

 near a road, where the air is blue with petrol fumes 

 from motor cycles and cars. The latter are 

 however part and parcel of modern every-day 

 life, and as they have come to stay. Masters of 

 hounds are faced by the problem of how to con- 

 trol them so that they will interfere as little as 

 possible with sport. The fox has already ac- 

 cepted them as every-day incidents in his life, 

 and no doubt he uses them as he does cattle and 

 sheep or manure tainted ground, as an aid to 

 escape, once he has discovered the fact that by 

 running past or near them the pressure of pursuit 

 is slackened. We have seen a hunted otter 

 jump a wall and dive under a waiting motor-car 

 across a road, so it is not surprising that foxes 

 show little fear of approaching such mechanical 

 vehicles. 



Despite the annoyance caused by motor-cycles 

 and cars, we should not forget that many peop'e 

 who use them for hunting on the roads may be 

 really keen on sport. A motor cyclist who 

 cannot afford a horse or horses, and perhaps uses 

 his cycle in his business, can hardly be blamed 

 for following hounds on it rather than on foot. 

 The attraction of riding to hounds — apart from 

 hound work and the science of hunting — ^lies in 



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