BREEDS 225 



in your boot heels, as you go bounding over 

 ditches, crashing through hedges, and coming a 

 nasty cropper now and then, when you trip over 

 rabbit-holes or furze-roots. The music ceases of 

 a sudden, and you are not sorry to have breathing 

 time, for your heart is beating at the double, 

 though you know your wind was good. The tiny 

 pack has been thrown out, and is casting to take 

 up the trail again. There, they have it; there is a 

 sharp note of delighted discovery from a veteran 

 you have learned to trust — you could tell that keen 

 yelp among a hundred — as the chorus swells again. 

 To tell the truth, the hare generally has the best 

 of it, and carries her fud away unscathed 

 though there are stories of famous old packs of 

 beagles who invariably wore down and worried 

 their prey. In these days when hares have been 

 proscribed by Act of Parliament, it is as w'ell they 

 should get away to give sport another time. And 

 if you ever have the chance, nothing will excite 

 you more than going out roe-shooting in the High- 

 lands, with beagles to start the game and keep it 

 going. Of course, the little dogs are far too sensible 

 to think they can tackle such a monster as a roe. 

 All the same, they hunt him as hard as if they 

 hoped it. If the roe were wise he would show them 

 a clean pair of heels. Agile above all animals and 

 fleet of foot, in his graceful bounds he can clear 

 bushes twice his own height. But he is loth to 

 leave the woods he inhabits. Unlike the hare, he 



does not twist and turn, but he runs in rings and 



P 



