308 MANAGEMENT OF HOUNDS. 



will run straight home ; and these afford the best chases. 

 Were I to become a hare-hunter, I would set about 

 forming my pack from the old blue mottled southern 

 hound and the foxhound, which I should consider the 

 best cross to make thorough good harriers. Twenty 

 couples are quite sufficient to form a pack of harriers, 

 fourteen or sixteen couples being the outside number 

 which should be taken into the field. These are enough 

 for all hunting purposes, and will make a good cry ; more 

 are, I think, a useless encumbrance, and will tend rather 

 to defeat than ensure good sport. 



Little is required for a huntsman to a pack of harriers. 

 He cannot be too quiet, and there is little opportunity, 

 as in fox-hunting, for the display of great talents. In 

 fox-hunting, to hear that your fox is a quarter of an hour 

 before you is no very pleasing intelligence, when you 

 know that he is still travelling on, and the time lost 

 cannot be regained ; but in hare-hunting this is not of 

 any very great consequence, as the hare generally stops 

 to listen when the hounds are far behind her, and after 

 doubling a few times will throw herself down and wait 

 until she is fresh found again. The season of the year 

 and weather are the best guides to the form of a hare. 

 When wet and stormy, hares seek low situations, pro- 

 tected from the wind, where there is some dry bank or 

 rough long grass. In dry weather they are commonly 

 found on old fallows, or in high situations. In enclosed 

 countries they generally sit near to the hedge or fence, 

 and not often in the middle of the field. Unless much dis- 

 turbed they lie very close in their forms during the greater 

 part of the year, until the months of February and March, 

 when they become wild, and get up at long distances. 



