2o8 Modern Dogs. 



I have yet to see a black and tan deerhound, or one 

 similar to a foxhound in hue. 



What a striking and life-like picture St. John 

 draws of Malcolm : '' as fine a looking lad, of thirty- 

 five, as ever stepped on heather," and of his two 

 hounds. Bran and Oscar, whose descriptions tally 

 with what I shall later on give to be those of a deer- 

 hound. There was no bloodhound or foxhound stain 

 in Bran and Oscar, and well might such handsome, 

 useful, faithful creatures, or similar ones, be worth 

 the ;^5o a-piece they would have brought even forty- 

 five years ago. 



Since St. John wrote, many deer forests have been 

 broken up into smaller holdings, and to this, perhaps, 

 may be attributed the fact that "coursing deer" 

 is not followed so much as in his time. There 

 are still a few forests in which a deerhound may be 

 taken out to assist at the termination of a stalk ; but 

 as the red deer is now mostly killed in " drives," a 

 sort of battue in which the shooter can sit at ease 

 until the deer come along, to be shot in a somewhat 

 ignominious manner, the deerhound as such is little 

 used. A stalker will find one useful at times, but 

 even he is supplied with such a perfect rifle, so 

 admirably sighted, and he is such a good shot that 

 the stag seldom requires more than the hard bullet 

 to kill him almost dead upon the spot. 



