2 THE GREYHOUND. 



usually adopted in private, the other in that more 'open display 

 which is known as ' public coursing.' In the former of these 

 sports, the destruction of the hare, per fas et nefas, seems too often 

 the sole object of those engaged in it, and their only limitation 

 consists in the number of the dogs, which no one but a decided 

 ' pot hunter ' allows to exceed " a brace at a time. On the other 

 hand, the public courser considers the hare as the only available 

 means of testing the powers of his greyhounds, and these animals 

 are not so much regarded by him as competing with the hare as 

 with one another. It is true that there are many exceptions, 

 some private coursers being as scrupulous in giving ( poor puss ' 

 every fair chance, and as watchful to detect every good point in 

 their greyhounds, as the most ardent public courser can desire, but 

 still they are the honourable exceptions ; and the general run of 

 private coursers care for little besides the kill, and to them a 

 ' good killer ' is the ne plus ultra of the greyhound. This defect 

 is by no means necessarily attendant upon private coursing ; but 

 unless a judge of the course is always selected, I am afraid it will 

 generally be the result, for without his watchful eye no one will 

 admit the inferiority of his own dog, but all will rest satisfied 

 that they have attained perfection, if they have got a dog which 

 will stand the sole test of merit, from which there is no appeal, 

 viz. the ' bagging of the hare.' Every other point may be dis- 

 puted or explained away, but the kill is tangible and evident, 

 and therefore it is always laid hold of and paraded by the grey- 

 hound-owner, where there is no appointed judge to put the 

 various points at their proper level. The public courser will 



