On Hunting

Some, though free from this fault, leave their own work when they hear a shout from another quarter while they are running, and make for it recklessly. When pursuing some are dubious, others are full of assumptions but their notions are wrong. Then there are the skirters, some of whom merely pretend to hunt, while others out of jealousy perpetually scamper about together beside the line.

Now most of these faults are natural defects, but some by which hounds are spoilt are due to unintelligent training. Anyhow such hounds may well put a keen hunter off the sport. What hounds of the same breed[*](The author’s ideal harrier is clearly the Castorian.) ought to look like and what they should be in other respects I will now explain.

First, then, they should be big. Next, the head should be light, flat[*](In profile.) and muscular; the lower parts of the forehead sinewy; the eyes prominent, black and sparkling; the forehead broad, with a deep dividing line; the ears small and thin with little hair behind; the neck long, loose and round; the chest broad and fairly fleshy; the shoulder-blades slightly outstanding from the shoulders; the forelegs short, straight, round and firm; the elbows straight[*](i.e., not bent inwards or outwards.); the ribs not low down on the ground,[*](So Pollux read, for he says μὴ πρὸς τὴν γῆν βαθυνομένας. The sense is then that the ribs are not to be low on the ground when the hound is couchant, but well tucked up behind. ἐπίπαν βαθείας, deep throughout, would apply to the depth from wall to wall, and the meaning would be that the ribs are to contract towards the flanks.) but sloping in an oblique line; the loins fleshy, of medium length, and neither too loose nor too hard; the flanks of medium size; the hips round and fleshy at the back, not close at the top, and smooth on the inside[*](i.e., without folds in the coat towards the loins.); the under part of the belly itself slim; the tail long, straight and thin; the thighs hard; the shanks[*](From the elbows to the feet.) long, round and solid; the hind-legs much longer than the fore-legs and slightly bent; the feet round.

Hounds like these will be strong in appearance, agile, well-proportioned, and speedy; and they will have a jaunty expression and a good mouth.

When tracking they should get out of the game paths quickly, hold their heads well down and aslant, smiling when they find the scent and lowering their ears; then they should all go forward together along the trail towards the form circling frequently,[*](A participle to govern κύκλους πολλοὺς has dropped out of the text.) with eyes continually on the move and tails wagging.

As soon as they are close on the hare, they should let the huntsman know, quickening the pace and showing more emphatic signs by their excitement, movements of the head and eyes, changes of attitude, by looking up and looking into the covert and returning again and again to the hare’s form, by leaps forward, backward and to the side, displays of unaffected agitation and overpowering delight at being near the hare.

They should pursue with unremitting vigour, giving tongue and barking freely, dogging the hare’s steps wherever she goes. They should be fast and brilliant in the chase, frequently casting about and giving tongue in the right fashion; and they should not leave the track and go back to the huntsman.

Along with this appearance and behaviour they should have pluck, keen noses, sound feet and good coats. They will be plucky if they don’t leave the hunting-ground when the heat is oppressive; keen-nosed if they smell the hare on bare, parched and sunny ground in the dog days[*](The older commentators are probably right in understanding the allusion to be to the Dog-star, not to the Sun.); sound in the feet if at the same season their feet are not torn to bits during a run in the mountains; they will have a good coat if the hair is fine, thick and soft.

The colour of the hounds should not be entirely tawny, black or white; for this is not a sign of good breeding: on the contrary, unbroken colour indicates a wild strain.

So the tawny and the black hounds should show a patch of white about the face, and the white hounds a tawny patch. At the top of the thighs the hair should be straight and thick, and on the loins and at the lower end of the tail, but it should be moderately thick higher up.

It is advisable to take the hounds to the mountains often, but less frequently to cultivated land. For in the mountains it is possible to track and follow a hare without hindrance, whereas it is impossible to do either in cultivated land owing to the game paths.

It is also well to take the hounds out into rough ground, whether they find a hare or not; for they get sound in the feet, and hard work in such country is good for their bodies.

In summer they should be out till midday, in winter at any hour of the day, in autumn at any time except midday, and before evening during the spring; for at these times the temperature is mild.

The scent of the hare lies long in winter owing to the length of the nights, and for a short time in summer for the opposite reason. In the winter, however, there is no scent in the early morning whenever there is a white frost or the earth is frozen hard. For both white and black frost hold heat; since the one draws it out by its own strength, and the other congeals it.

The hounds’ noses, too, are numbed by the cold, and they cannot smell when the tracks are in such a state until the tracks thaw in the sun or as day advances. Then the dogs can smell and the scent revives.

A heavy dew, again, obliterates scent by carrying it downwards; and storms, occurring after a long interval, draw smells from the ground[*](ἄγειν τῆς γῆς has no parallel in Greek prose: perhaps ἐκ has fallen out or τὴν γῆν should be read.) and make the earth bad for scent until it dries. South winds spoil scent, because the moisture scatters it, but north winds concentrate and preserve it, if it has not been previously dissolved.

Heavy showers drown it, and so does light rain, and the moon deadens it by its warmth,[*](Or deadens the heat if we read τὸ θερμόν with Gesner. But the Greeks did attribute heat to the moon.) especially when at the full. Scent is most irregular at that time, for the hares, enjoying the light, fling themselves high in the air and jump a long way, frolicking with one another; and it becomes confused when foxes have crossed it.

Spring with its genial temperature yields a clear scent, except where the ground is studded with flowers and hampers the hounds by mingling the odours of the flowers with it. In summer it is thin and faint, for the ground, being baked, obliterates what warmth it possesses, which is thin; and the hounds’ noses are not so good at that season, because their bodies are relaxed. In the autumn it is unimpeded; for the cultivated crops have been harvested and the weeds have withered, so that the odours of the herbage do not cause trouble by mingling with it.