THE MASTER'S EXPENSES 123 



or two in addition to the railway journey of his 

 mother when she went to be mated. The judicious 

 Master will never grudge the absence of one or two 

 of the best bitches in the pack during the breeding 

 season. Any hound can help catch a fox on a good 

 scenting day. If it is a bad scenting fortnight, so 

 much the better. The best plan, of course, is to get 

 the bitches away in frosty weather, or when it looks 

 as if a good spell of snow had set in. They will all 

 be back again, as likely as not, with the next open 

 weather. Personally, I have no faith in very early 

 puppies. May is quite early enough for them to be 

 born, for they will thrive better in the warm summer 

 weather when it is generally possible for them to 

 get out. There can be no earthly object in sending 

 the bitches away to be warded in November, for they 

 would then have to run all the risks. As a bitch 

 generally goes about sixty days in whelp, there should 

 be no great difficulty in making a rough calculation, 

 particularly as the time is very rarely in excess of 

 seventy days. November is just the month in which 

 the Master requires as much steadiness as possible in 

 the pack. It is the first month of regular hunting, and 

 the hunters of two and three seasons are very necessary 

 to give drive to the rest. 



Apart from the aforementioned advantage of approxi- 

 mate age, it is very desirable that the sire and dam 

 should as far as possible share the same characters. 

 The result of putting a small, compact dog to a big, 

 leggy bitch is almost bound to be disappointing, for 

 the produce are sure to inherit the bad points of their 



