THE FoxitouNn. As a breed distinctly char acteristic and solely used for the hunting of the fox, the foxhound is a comparatively modern development, not reaching further back than two hundred years; but it. has been developed from the bloodhound and the Talbot or old Southern hound, tracealele for two thousand years. ‘Vlien England gradually became more or less de forested, and animals of the chase had more open spaces for their speed, it naturally followed that this dog had to have increased pace, and for all kinds of game except the very heaviest the bloodhound and Talbot gradually gave place to lighter hounds grafted on the old model. The stag or hack hound was the first variety of what we now class under the general term 'foxhound.' He was the first. to come. and practically the first to go, for not one pack of the larger Imekhonnd exists to every hundred packs of the true fox hound. The establishment of regular packs of hounds for hunting the fox. the first of which was the Pytehley in 1750, stamped the breed on the lines from which the English hound has never varied—indeed, into some packs not a single drop of extraneous blood has ever been introduced. Most of the packs established in the latter part of that century are still. so far as other blood is concerned, in unbroken exist ence; such are the Belvoir (founded, 1756), the Ouorn, and the Cottesmores.
Where the game chased is as swift, and crafty as the fox, and the country as open, yet studded with hedgerows and walls, which act as an ever reeurring screen from sight, it follows that the pursuing hound must have unfailing powers of scent, endurance, and swiftness. These are the three characteristics of the bony, muscular, com pact, big-bodied, typical foxhound. His height is not so material as are other points; 23 to 24 inches at. the shoulder is a safe medium. Nor is color imperative, though necessarily, from the jealousy with which the breed has been guarded, there are no variations outside the yellow or tan, black and white, in ever-varying and clearly marked blotches over the whole body. The head
should have a girth in front of the ears of fully 16 inches; the nose should be inches long, and wide, with open nostrils, and ears set low and lying close to the cheeks. The neck should taper from the shoulders to the head. The chest of a dog 24 inches high should be more than 30 inches in girth, to give the necessary lung capacity, and the ribs must be deep and grade into the loins without an observable break. The hind quarters must be very strong, and the front legs straight and :strong. So important are these two features that in judging they call for 20 points out of the total 100. The modern dog, being better trained, is lighter than his ancestor; 70 to SO pounds is the limit of a dog's weight, and the female may be ten pounds lighter.
In America the local conditions differ so wide ly, and are so various, that it is almost impos sible to define the American foxhound. In some districts, like Maryland and in the Genesee Val ley, the fox is followed very much after the English fashion, on horseback, over rolling grass lands; elsewhere, the dog does the hunting and the man waits behind a wall on the supposed runway with a gun: in a third, the men follow the dogs afoot; in still others. they hunt the fox at night. It follows, therefore, that the dogs locally needed must be as various as the methods, and they are so; but. speaking broadly, and of the hound favored by the American Foxhound Club, it need only be said that it is bred on lighter and finer lines than its English ancestor. It is shorter at the shoulder-21 to inches —and weighs not more than 57 pounds. The chest is narrower in proportion to depth than the English standard; 20 inches in a hound is considered good. In most other re spects, naturally the requirements are very sim ilar. One minor point of some importance may he noticed: the English dog always has his ears artificially rounded, while the American dog re• tains them untrimmed.