ODDS AND ENDS. 1 23 



necessary. Hounds are much more likely to 

 mark them to ground with only one or two 

 on foot than if half-a-dozen are running under 

 their noses all the time and foiling the covert. 

 In this way it would insure the survival of 

 the fittest, and the hounds would be blooded 

 with the worst of the litter. 



I think the ignorance of the country is mainly 

 caused by the ease with w^hich foxes can get 

 their living in many districts, so that they have 

 not to travel many miles in search of food. It 

 is only tow^ards the end of the season that the 

 young dog foxes are beginning to know the 

 country, the vixens mostly sticking close home. 

 And, alas I how many of those dog foxes, just as 

 they are becoming worth having, disappear un- 

 accountably during the summer months, and 

 never turn up again, every huntsman knows ! 



The pace at which hounds are bred to go 

 nowadays has, of course, a great deal to do with 

 the shortness of the runs. The long, slow 

 hunting runs which our forefathers loved would 

 not suit the '' flyers of the hunt " of the present 

 day at all ! Five-and-twenty minutes on the 

 grass without a check, and then '' who-whoop," 

 repeated ad lib,, is now the order of the day, and 



