152 SYSTEM OF KENNEL AND 



and remain passive in their dens or lairs throughout 

 the day. Moreover, except when ravenous from 

 long abstinence, they rarely glut themselves Vi^ith 

 food. The fox, which affords us so much amuse- 

 ment, is a light feeder, although a great depredator, 

 and we know when, perchance, he gets into the 

 poultry-house that he will kill as long as he can 

 catch, carrying all away and hiding them for 

 futui'e provision ; and being such a bloodthirsty 

 animal, we feel less compunction in his destruction 

 than in that of the more timid deer and hare. 



The practice in the majority of kennels is to 

 feed the hounds about eleven o'clock, so that they 

 have twenty-four hours without again tasting food 

 — the hour of meeting being now at the same hour, 

 and then it does not always follow that they do 

 taste their fox. Supposing the day unpropitious, 

 without this desired contingency to a run, the 

 probability is, that six hours more will elapse before 

 their return to kennel, making about thirty since 

 the time of their daily feed on the previous day. 

 Oatmeal is the strongest of all ferinaceous food, 

 but when diluted with the large quantity of broth 

 generally used, cannot afford that amount of nutri- 

 ment required for hounds or any other sporting dog 

 in hard work, and therefore, during the hunting 

 season, we divided the meal, giving in the morning 

 more broth, and in the afternoon pudding mixed as 

 thickly as possible with meat. We all know by 

 experience the craving sensations inseparable from 

 an ungratified appetite at our usual dinner hour. 

 Few things in life ruffle a man's temper more than 



