PRICKING

—is the unsportsmanlike act of tracking a HARE by the points of her feet, upon the paths and highways, when the hounds are at fault: it is a common practice, and can only be justified where hares are exceedingly scarce, and difficult to be found, with packs very small in number, or deficient in effect; but it is a custom too mean and degrading to be permitted with hounds of eminence, who must kill their game with a reputation untainted, or not kill at all.