34 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



stuck up a stake to know how far they "brought it. Again, when 

 at a check, he cautions him against, by over-eagerness, driving 

 them over the line. He also tells him to make every inch of 

 ground good with a tired or beaten hare, leaving nothing 

 unexamined, " as she then lies in a very small space, and some- 

 times shrinks from leaving it through weariness and terror." In 

 fact, leave out the nets and you have as near a description of a 

 modern hare-hunt in an enclosed or mountainous country as 

 possible, and one that has brought back to my mind many 

 similar scenes in the chase of the hare in England. Moreover, 

 he continually, in his "Cynegeticus," speaks of scent in connexion 

 with the chase ; but, unlike Arrian, nothing of coursing entirely 

 by sight. In fact, we constantly find allusions to either over- 

 running the scent, not owning it, or going off on a false one. 

 He said, with great truth, " such dogs indeed may disgust people 

 with hunting who have a strong turn for it." 



That the old Athenian had a pretty good notion of what a 

 hound should be, the following description will show : — 



"In the first place, then, they ought to be large ; and, in the 

 next, they should have their heads light, short, and sinewy,^ 

 the lower jaw muscular, the eyes upraised, black, and bright; 

 the face large and broad, the line dividing the eyes deep, the 

 ears small, thin, and without hair on the back ; the neck long, 

 flexible, and round, the shoulder-blades standing out a little 

 apart from the shoulders ; the fore-legs small (short), straight, 

 round, wiry; the knees straight; the sides should not hang 

 down, but run along obliquely ; the loins, their size medium, 

 between long and short, should be fleshy, and not too soft or too 

 hard ; the upper flanks something between large and small ; the 

 hips should be round, fleshy towards the hinder part, not drawn 

 together at the upper, but closely joined within ; the part below 

 the flank and the lower flank itself should be loose ; the tail lon^, 

 straight, sharp pointed ; the thighs firm ; the lower part of the 



1 Not a greyhound head, at any rate. 



