40 COVERT-SIDE SKETCHES. 



say that tliere are only in reality the Devon and Somerset, 

 •which of course hunt hinds also in their proper season. 



Of buck- hounds we have at present no regular pack to my 

 knowledge, although the chase of the fallow buck is by no 

 means extinct, as for some years past Captain Lovell every spring 

 has had a month amongst them in the New Forest. The does, 

 I believe, are never now hunted. 



Eoebuck hunting has fallen into disuse for some few years, 

 though it is not so very long ago that a pack of harriers regu- 

 larly hunted this elegant little animal in Dorsetshire during the 

 spring. Why it was given up I have never heard, but they now 

 shoot them instead. 



Next in importance comes the otter, which is largely hunted 

 on the Borders, in Wales, part of Shropshire, and in Devonshire ; 

 but as the packs are, for the most part, private, and have no 

 regular countries, moving about from one place to the other as 

 otters are heard of, pretty much in the same manner that fox- 

 hounds did years ago, it is impossible for me to give any idea 

 of the number in existence. I can only say that they appear to 

 be on the increase (which is an encouraging fact), and that the 

 only pack the meets of which are made public is the Carlisle 

 otter hounds. 



The badger has for ages dropped out of the ranks as a 

 beast of chase, though many still amuse themselves by digging 

 him out with terriers. Nevertheless, he is hunted occasionally 

 in wild, rough countries, where he still abounds, at night, with 

 fox-hounds, and affords good sport to those who do' not mind 

 sacrificing a night's rest. Old Jem Hill was, I believe, fond of 

 pursuing this sport in Wychwood Forest, now a clear field. And 

 Jack Parker, the huntsman of the Sinnington, is a great adept 

 at it, and, when I was in that country a few years ago, showed 

 me some of his hounds, which were noted badger-hunters. He 

 assured me that their note was totally different, when pursuing 

 the badger, from what they uttered when on the line of a fox, 

 and that, although the latter were moving about at night, the 



