VERMIN llECOMMENDED. 99 



shy of them afterwards. A friend of mine has 

 assured me, that he once entered a spaniel to 

 snipes, and the dog ever after was partial to 

 them, preferring them to every other bird. 



If you have marten cats within yovu* reach, as 

 all hounds are fond of their scent, you will do 

 well to enter your young hounds in covers 

 which they frequent. The marten cat, being a 

 small animal, by running the thickest brakes it 

 can find, teaches hounds to run cover, and is 

 therefore of the greatest use. I do not much 

 approve of hunting them with the old hounds : 

 they show but little sport; are continually climb- 

 ing trees; and as the cover they run seldom 

 fails to scratch and tear hounds considerably, I 

 think you might be sorry to see your whole 

 pack disfigured by it. The agility of this little 

 animal is really wonderful ; and though it falls 

 frequently from a tree, in the midst of a whole 

 pack of hounds, all intent on catching it, there 

 are but few instances, I believe, of a marten's 

 being caught by them in that situation. 



In summer, hounds might hunt in an evening. 

 I know a pack, that after having killed one fox 

 in the morning with the young hounds, killed 

 another in the evening with the old ones. Scent 

 generally lies well at the close of the day j yet 

 F 2 



