208 Forty Years Beagling 



and heard a couple of such flyers in full cry, screech- 

 ing like fox-terriers after a neighbor's cat, he proba- 

 bly would not have written of 'voices matched like 

 bells.' He would have said something very differ- 

 ent. Yet there are enough beagles blessed with 

 the characteristic voice of the breed to make us wish 

 there were more. These sportsmen who have at- 

 tended the trials and heard the sweet voices of 

 hounds such as Millard, Cry Baby, Royal Kreuger, 

 Ava W., and a score of others whose names will 

 occur to any beagle fancier, will agree that there 

 was vastly more pleasui^e in listening to their driv- 

 ing than there was in hearing the shrieks and 

 screams of their sharp -voice rivals. For many the 

 cry of the beagle makes the hunt. They care 

 nothing for the game, and take little interest in 

 watching the patient, careful work of the pack 

 puzzling out a difficult trail. They take their 

 hounds afield for the music alone. Others care 

 much more for the game and little for the tonguing, 

 but even they will agree that a sweet hound voice is 

 better than a harsh or squeaky one. If in the future 

 the beagle breeders will pay as much attention to 

 general hunting qualities as they have in the past, 

 and much more attention than they have done to 

 voice, they will take a long step in making their 

 hounds what they ought to be — the most musical of 



