30 SYSTEM OF KEXNEL AND 



operation, could any substitute be found. When 

 whelps are sent out from their kennel in large num- 

 bers at three months old, they would scarcely be 

 recognized, after seven or eight months' further 

 growth, by huntsman or master, save for the litter- 

 mark and brand, so great is the metamorphosis from 

 puppyhood to doghood. Some prefer marking their 

 hounds twice a year with a pair of scissors, cutting 

 out the initial letter in the hair only, which might 

 easily be obliterated by a dog-stealer ; but an entered 

 foxhound, knowing well the locality of his kennel, 

 is rarely lost, and if caught up — no easy matter — 

 would seize the first opportunity of regaining his 

 liberty and returning home. The brand is of the 

 greatest service when the whelps are at their quar- 

 ters, from which they may either stray away or 

 be abducted by trampers. When once entered the 

 pack, of course the huntsman knows every indivi- 

 dual by other distinguishing marks or peculiarity 

 of feature, as a shepherd of the largest flock knows 

 one sheep from another. 



As an instance of the extraordinary instinct in a 

 foxhound which directs his way home, I may relate 

 the following fact : — The late Mr. Elton, of Staple- 

 ton House, who for many years kept a pack of 

 thorough-bred foxhounds of Lord Egremont's breed, 

 conjointly with my father, to hunt both fox and 

 hare, gave a hound which had bred a litter of 

 whelps that year to a friend residing in Essex, but 

 at that time staying with him. This hound was 

 taken in his travelling chariot — the usual mode 

 of locomotion in those days — from Bristol, right 



