NOSE AND TONGUE 



it may be of interest to discuss the various points 

 of the foxhound's head. 



Although scenting power is the hound's most 

 valuable quality, a tender nose is of little use 

 unless the brain is there to guide its employment 

 in the right direction. The development of the 

 brain is controlled by the shape of the head, and 

 this will be found to vary somewhat in different 

 types of hounds. In the fell and other northern 

 packs, the head is longer and more pointed, with 

 a higher occipital than in the fashionable packs, 

 where the muzzle is deeper and broader. What 

 our American cousins describe as "fox-sense" 

 in a hound, is the capacity to use the brain in the 

 control of the senses in the right direction. 



The hound which puts the pack right on a bad 

 scenting day, draws the most likely spot in covert, 

 and turns short with a beaten fox, uses his brain, 

 and thus he is a valuable addition to the pack, 

 and has a warm corner in his huntsman's heart. 

 The head of a hound should therefore exhibit 

 plenty of room for brains. The development of 

 the occipital bone varies considerably in different 

 types. It is highest and most prominent in the 

 blood-hound, whilst fell and other northern packs, 

 as well as the Kerry beagle exhibit the occipital 

 strongly developed. Descendants of the old 

 southern hound also show it, but in their case, as 

 well as with the blood-hound, there is an accom- 

 panying wrinkling of the skin on the forehead, 

 and great depth of flew, which is absent in the 

 Border types and the Kerry beagle. Determina- 

 tion in man is usually exhibited by a square jaw, 

 and the same applies to the hound. Some lines 

 of blood appear predisposed to overshot or under- 

 shot jaws, this state of affairs often appearing in 

 hounds whose heads have little " dish" in the 



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