30 SYSTEM OF KEXNEL AND 



operation, could any substitute be found. When 

 whelps are sent out from their kennel in large num- 

 bers at three months old, they would scarcely be 

 recognized, after seven or eight months' further 

 growth, by huntsman or master, save for the litter- 

 mark and brand, so great is the metamorphosis from, 

 puppyhood to doghood. Some prefer marking their 

 hounds twice a year with a pair of scissors, cutting 

 out the initial letter in the hair only, which might 

 easily be obliterated by a dog-stealer ; but an entered 

 foxhound, knowing well the locality of his kennel, 

 is rarely losb, and if caught up no easy matter 

 would seize the first opportunity of regaining his 

 liberty and returning home. The brand is of the 



st service when the whelps are at their quar- 

 ters, from which they may either stray away or 

 Le al>ducted by trampers. When once entered the 

 pack, of course the huntsman knows every indivi- 

 dual by other distinguishing marks or peculiarity 

 of feature, as a shepherd of the largest flock knows 

 one sheep from another. 



n instance of the extraordinary instinct in a. 

 foxhound which directs his way home, I may relate 



living fact: The lad' Mr, Klton, of Staple- 

 ton House, Avho for many years kept, a pack of 

 thorough-bred foxhounds of Lord Egremont's breed, 

 conjointly with my father, to hunt both fox and 

 hound which had bred a litter of 

 whrlps that year to a friend residing in Essex, but 

 at that time staying with him. This hound was 

 in his travelling chariot the usual mode 

 of locomotion in those days from Bristol, right 



