3 i8 BREAKING AND ENTERING. 



defed steady, and by practice enabled to work tbeir fox. Very often . 

 the master will take advantage of an opportunity to have a nice 

 little burst to himself ; and, if the hounds are not made to hustle 

 the foxes through the large woodlands, good after sport cannot be 

 expected. Independently of the above object, cub-hunting is prac- 

 tised in August, September, and October, firstly, in order to give 

 the young hounds blood, which they can obtain easily from a litter 

 of fat cubs ; secondly, to break them from " riot," while they are 

 encouraged to hunt their own game ; arid, thirdly, to endeavour to 

 break them off sundry faults, such as skirting, &c. ; or, if apparently 

 incurable, to draft them at once. These objects are generally 

 attained by the end of October, when the regular season begins. 



Harriers and beagles are entered to hare on the same principle, 

 the scent of the fox and deer, as well as that of the rabbit, being 

 " riot " to them, and strictly prohibited! Otterhounds also have 

 exactly the same kind of entry, although the element they work in 

 is of a different character. 



THE BREAKING OF THE POINTER AND SETTER. 



The following observations on the breaking of these dogs 

 appeared in " The Field," during the spring of 1858, and are be- 

 lieved to embody the general practice of good breakers : — 



As the method is the same for each kind, whenever the word 

 pointer is used, it is to be understood as applying equally to 

 the. setter. 



It is scarcely necessary for me to remark that no single life 

 would suffice to bring the art of breaking dogs to all the per- 

 fection of which it is capable, when the various improvements 

 of succeeding generations are handed down from one to the other ; 

 and therefore I neither pretend to be the inventor of any me- 



