ON HALIvOING 



have studied the science of hunting from a pro- 

 fessional point of view. Gratuitous halloas not 

 only head foxes but get hounds' heads up as 

 well. Once they are up, it is not always easy to 

 get them down again, particularly when scent 

 is fast failing. 



It is customary for a whipper-in to halloa 

 when a fox breaks covert, and both hounds and 

 field know the shrill scream that signals the fox 

 is away. It is a moot point whether on a good 

 scenting day hounds will not hunt their fox out 

 of covert quite as quickly as they will go to a 

 halloa. From small and medium sized coverts 

 there is no doubt they can get away just as quickly 

 if left alone, and what is more they appear to 

 settle better on the line when they get into the 

 open. In large woodlands it is of course a 

 different matter, for in such places foxes are wont 

 to hang about in covert, and thus hounds may 

 not get away with the first fox that breaks. 

 When drawing for a fox at the start of the day, all 

 the foxes are fresh, and therefore any one of them 

 will do, whereas towards the end of a run only 

 one will do, and that the hunted one. A fresh 

 fox will often alter his course but little when 

 greeted with a series of halloas from excitable 

 foot people, especially if he lives in a part of the 

 country which is thickly inhabited, and where 

 halloing is of frequent occurrence. The majority 

 of people however start halloing directly they 

 see the fox, instead of — if they will halloa — ■ 

 letting it get well past them. Halloing right 

 in the face of a fox naturally turns him, and 

 unless scenting conditions are good, the result 

 is a check when hounds reach the spot. 



The time however when promiscuous halloing 

 does the most harm is when a beaten fox is in 



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