ALL ABOUT BEAGLES.

Evening Star, Issue 14515, 5 November 1910, Page 11

ALL ABOUT BEAGLES.

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[By Robert Kaleski.] No. VII. New chums in New South "Wales often vender why game is so scarce in some districts tnat are full of grass and covcl. The reason is simple—the local people (and visitors) keep beagles. Go any holiday morning along the western line from Liverpool or Parramatta to Anywhere, and you will travel all day amongst hounds. Each shooter has from two to three with him; theso make 'the air ring with music as they patiently search each clump of brush for the wily rabbit or hare, which loves to lie safe and still, and let the world (especially with guns) go by it. . In vain these crouch low in their nosts, with ears flat on back and eyes shining. Sooner or later their enemy finds them out; a howl of disappointment as Puss or Brer Rabbit eludes their ready jaws, and the pack is at work. In vain the quarry runs and doubles; the persistent searohers in its rear press it slowly but surely towards the shooter. Bang I—and its troubles are over, and another's are beginning. —Thore bo Many Kinds.—

Anything in the dog line with long ears and a loud voico is called a beagle in this country. So you meet them in all suses; from the half-bred Siberian blood-hound, which eats calves in his spare time, to the littlo lap-dog beagle which ferrets in tho burrows for rabbits. Their colors vary likewise l —from black to white, some brindle, some red (or black) and white dappled, others black and tan; odd ones splashed with blue. The red or black dapples and whites are far tho most numerous, for the simple reason that the others don't get shot so much in mistake for tho game.

You are watching an open space ahead of where your dog is tongumg; suddenly something dark whisks into the open. Bang!—and a riddled dog rolls over, whilst the hare or rabbit, which doubled at tho very edge, sails away to safety. It is tho moro annoying because the dark dogs, especially the black-and-tans, are nearly always the best workers; thoir bloodhound ancestry giving them true noses. —The Perfect Beagle.—

Three things make a perfect beaglo for hunting—a true nose, head, and heart: his nose, because unless true he fools away his time running cold scents or losing hot ones; head, because hares and wallabies, often hunted, get "so cunning at blinding their scent; true heart, oecause strong running game often takes a five-mile circlo before coming back to the gun, and a faint-hearted dog thinks it is never going to turn, so knocks off and runs ack on the scent. Then the game, not being pushed, finds a comfortable placo and goes to sleep; whilst the shooter waits in vain for it to come round and be shot.

Size has nothing to do with these qualities; it has with the beagle's speed, though. Tho lower the dog the slower he runs; a tall, lanky dog is very fast, killing his game in half the time a small one will. Some shooters like tho slow fellow, others the fast one. Tho fast dog bwstles the game round so that the shooter has to bo mighty quick in his shot; the slow one coaxes it round so that you can shoot it sitting if yon want to. All a matter of taste.

Beagles vary as much in disposition as in color. Some are keen and kind, others kind and soft. A few surly (the blood-hound or collie cross especially); the majority soft and easy-going. In hunting, the best workers are generally tho surliest; which is a pity, as when j'ou try to pull them off the dead game, or kick them off a scent towards dark, they are apt to resent it. Then perhaps you lose your temper and shoot; five minutes afterwards you want to shoot yourself for.killing the best dog you ever had. It is a funny thing that the halfcollie and beaglo makes such a determined and safe worker—often better, in fact, than the collie beagle. Somo people say that the collie came from the wolf; perhaps the old hunting instinct wakes up in the cross-bred. One trouble about them is that they will turn and fight you for the game when yon shoot it. —The Best are Imported.— Beagles run well in all shapes, so it is hard to pick a good one. Sometimes, in one district a flatskulled one will be tho best; in another, one with a long, narrow skull, domed liko a blood-hound's, and tremendous ears. One thing to bo noticed is, the longer they are bred in a district the worse workers they pet; the imported dogs being always the best. Don't know if this is climate or inbreeding, or both. One trouble about keeping beagles is that you aro always losing them. Rarely six months goes by but you miss one. Either he gets lost following game into strange country, or finds a bait. Sometimes ho gets bitten by a snake; or gets fast under rocks following rabbits. Other times graziers shoot him because they don't like him shouting about the paddocks, disturbing their stock. So a beagle's life only r.verages about four years; you have to ho always breeding to keep up tho supply.

One, important thing about a beagle is that he has a good tongue. If lie runs silent, the game forgets it is beinrr hunted, and stops to rest. Then "•;>• runs on top of it, and kills it withouo it ever seeing the gun, hfins himself, and makes a mess of things generally. Another thing, the shoots-r never knows where his dog or game is, or when to expect them, with tho silent beagle. On the other hand, with a beagle acreaming to it every few yards: " Here, stop a minute, I want to speak to you," the game runs for - its life. Nature makes it run in circles, so when it runs back to where it started from the shooter is waiting on a stump for it. If ho is any sort of a shot, the beagle gets its inside for payment. —The Merry Voices of tho Pack.— I always pick my dogs' voices; I have a bass, a tenor, and two trebles, usually. Wonderful how pretty it sounds when they are all working together; especially on a cool spring morning, with the dew on the grass. Scent lies best on the dew, or after rain. It is grand to watch tho open spaces in the scrub, and see tho game flit across like a shadow; then the gallant little dapples running in its tracks, singing a song liko a peal of bells as they go. A beagle's nose is his eyes; that's why, when a beagle goes blind, he can hunt nearly as well. Nearly ;dl good dogs run themselves blind hi time; partly through keeping their heads down so long at a stretch, partly on account of sticks and scrub brushing their eyes as they run. Some go blind when almost pups; others keep sound till six or seven years old. It is wonderful to see how a blind dog dodges obstacles; just when yon think he will go smash into a log, or down into a hole, he clears it as if he had electric lights on his nose.

—The Art of Training.— There is no art in picking beagle pups; no one can tell how they will turn out. The only thing is to pick tbcm from an approved working strain, well made and dappled. Rear them on boiled meat and scraps. When about four months old. drag their food along the ground some distance by a string, and then plant it. They soon get used to following the scent till they find their dinner. Once they grasp the idea, hunting comes easy to them. Then take them out for short runs after rabbits, with an old dog. As they get older take them out after hares: when go-d at these, put them on to wallabies. When they can ran hares and wallabies, they can run anything, as each of

these, in its own line, is the ounmngest of game. Dogs must be broken to the three when young; for if only used to tho one scent they won't run any other. When the game is shot, let it he till tho dog runs up and sniffs it; he knows then it is all right. Otherwise he will go looking for it again, and get disheartened. If you find he is inclined to run the scent back to you instead of following it (a common fault of young dogs), beat him a little and start him off again. If he persists in running back, just shoot him, as ho will never make a worker. (To bo continued.) [No. I. of these articles on dogs appeared in our iasuo of September 29, No. 11. on October 3, No. 111. on October 15, No. IV. on October 20, No. V. on October 29, and No. VI. on November 2.]