FOXES FOXHOUNDS & FOX-HUNTING 



and it is in the latter that the marten is often 

 discovered, driven out, and shot. Apropos of 

 the foumart's habits of haunting old buildings, 

 Edwards, the Scottish naturalist, relates the story 

 of a fight he had with a polecat. Having lain 

 down to sleep in the vault of the ruined castle of 

 the Boyne, a foumart was attracted by the scent 

 of a water-hen which he had in his pocket. The 

 foumart attacked, and when Edwards attempted 

 to drive the creature away, it renewed the assault, 

 shrieking ferociously. Eventually Edwards 



gripped it with his hands and put an end to its 

 further mischief by chloroforming it with the 

 contents of a bottle which he used for asphyxiat- 

 ing butterflies and moths. 



The foumart's scent being strong, hounds could 

 own the line long after the animal had gone. This 

 often led to the pack striking the drag heelway, 

 and after a long hard run the field found them- 

 selves at the beginning instead of at the end of 

 the hunt. On one occasion hounds hit off a drag 

 directly they were unkennelled and ran it for a 

 long distance after which they ran it back again, 

 and marked their foumart to ground under the 

 very building from which they had been released 

 earlier in the morning. On another occasion a 

 foumart was marked in a stone heap. The 

 animal bolted — a rather unusual occurrence by 

 the way — and was at once rolled over. Directly 

 after, away hounds went in full cry for some four 

 miles or more, and, returning on the same line, 

 came straight back to the same stone heap. The 

 foumart was therefore killed first and hunted 

 afterwards. Occasionally hounds picked up the 

 drag of a stoat, but the latter ran with many 

 twists and turns whereas the line of the foumart 

 was more or less straight, so that there was little 



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