128 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



hound must be a skirter because at a distance from 

 his fellows. Some possess a peculiar instinct in 

 directing them at once to the kennel of a fox, 

 and will go straight to it, when the pack may be 

 drawing another part of the covert, which the 

 huntsman might consider the most likely ground to 

 find his game ; and this peculiarity is not the result 

 of age and experience, as may be supposed. We 

 have known young hounds even in their first season 

 thus gifted, and one in his second season remarkable 

 for the manner in which he drew for his game. 

 When the pack were dashing into the stuff, this dog 

 trotted up the drive, testing the several menses lead- 

 ing into it by smelling the twigs, without putting 

 his nose to the ground, and if satisfied that a fox 

 had passed, he generally threw his tongue once or 

 twice, and then went rapidly up to the fox's kennel 

 without again speaking, until he had roused him, 

 of which he gave us full notice, the rest of the 

 pack flying to him like lightning ; for Deputy 

 never spoke falsely. This hound, as he grew older, 

 became so thoroughly au fait at this business, 

 that if convinced no fox was in the covert, he would 

 come back to us, and look up in our face with an 

 expression of disappointment, as much as to say, 

 " It's no use trying more, master, there is no fox 

 here ;" and we never found Deputy wrong in his 

 decision. 



The late Mr. Codrington, a master of great 

 celebrity in his day, used to say, that by drawing 

 his hounds round a gorse- covert, he could tell 

 "whether it contained a fox or not ; and generally 



