Some Bench Show Data 271 



able breeder of note will be just what he is claimed 

 to be and nothing more. 



From the foregoing the average beagler who 

 reads the sporting press of the day can readily see 

 that from the introduction of the thoroughbred bea- 

 gle to the United States, there has been a difference 

 of opinion among breeders and handlers, as there 

 is to-day; and the author has taken part in them 

 during the past few years, believing that, whether 

 right or wrong, from the viewpoint of the majority, 

 such discussions have tended as they did in the past 

 toward the betterment of the breed. 



It is an acloiowledged fact that there are many 

 beaglers to-day who believe that there is a differ- 

 ence between the bench and field-trial type, as there 

 is between the so-called English and American 

 beagle. Again take the question of the imported 

 English beagle, and we have not always imported 

 the best ; he has been bred at home for centuries to 

 hunt the hare, in packs, which trait has naturally 

 descended to his progeny. Most beagles in the 

 United States are accustomed to hunt to the gun, 

 as individual hounds on the rabbit or cony. Is a 

 comparison therefore fair? Take the field trials, 

 where, as a rule, as at the Nationals, so-called in- 

 dividual English pack hounds are started in the 

 brace stakes, they occasionally win a place; but 



