FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



seen hounds on the hills wind a fox at a long 

 distance. Only the other day I saw two or 

 three couples wind a fox lying motionless in a 

 crag, and there was no breeze blowing in their 

 direction at the time. A few years ago I walked 

 a puppy for a certain Hunt, and when he was 

 two years old that hound could find grouse, or 

 perhaps I had better say wind them, at consider- 

 able distances. He was a particularly sensible 

 hound, and though a grand worker at his own 

 job I verily believe I could have trained him to 

 be a useful gun-dog. The writer aforementioned 

 says : ' ' Did a man ever smell a partridge or 

 grouse, except when served up with bread sauce ? " 

 This is rather a difficult question to answer, but 

 speaking personally, as one who lives in sight of a 

 moor, and is constantly on it at all seasons, I 

 think I have smelt grouse on more than one 

 occasion. Under certain conditions of weather 

 the various scents in the open are more notice- 

 able than at other times, and on one occasion 

 at least I am convinced I could smell grouse. I 

 do not, however, state this as an undeniable fact, 

 as I may have been mistaken, but I made a note 

 of it at the time, and referred to it after reading 

 the statements made by the aforementioned 

 writer. The latter also says : ' ' Can birds con- 

 sciously or unconsciously withhold their scent ? " 

 Here again one cannot give a definite answer, 

 though a bird sitting close with feathers held 

 tight, probably gives off little scent except from 

 its breath. Anyhow, both dogs and foxes can 

 find sitting partridges and pheasants, which 

 seems to point to the fact that birds cannot en- 

 tirely withhold their scent. 



In our Lakeland country hunting generally 

 ends somewhere about the middle of May, and 



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