190 ROUNDING THE EARS OF FOX-HOUNDS. 



one kennel, the more virulent will be the dis- 

 temper. 



My practice was to keep the best bred and 

 most promising puppies at their walks as long 

 as possible, until the hunting season was past, 

 when more attention could be paid to them. The 

 operation of rounding their ears should never be 

 performed until the young hounds have recovered 

 entirely from the effects of distemper, as the loss 

 of blood is sometimes excessive ; and I wish we 

 could dispense with this cruel practice altogether ; 

 yet I know not how it can be avoided with fox- 

 hounds, whose ears, if permitted to remain as 

 nature formed them, would be torn and scratched 

 most severely in thick coverts, where their work 

 first commences. It is a different thing with 

 harriers, which draw in the open field for their 

 game, and have few opportunities of scratching 

 their ears and faces in a stiff blackthorn thicket. 

 The natural resort of the fox is in large wood- 

 lands or gorse coverts, and to these he will hold, 

 until forced by his pursuers to face the open 

 country ; and even then, it is with the intention 

 of gaining some other strong tangled thicket or 

 brake, from which he is again compelled to fly, or 

 yield his life. Militat in sylms catidus is strictly 

 applicable to a young fox-hound ; and to prepare 



