TRAIL, or TRAILING
,—appertains solely to HARE HUNTING; by which, in general, the hare is found and started from her form. Soon after hounds are thrown off, some one or more are quickly observed to give tongue; this the old and best hounds immediately attend to, and instantly join, which is called taking trail: but whether such trail arises from perspirative particles adhering to the line of her works during the night from her feet only, or whether it is produced from the lungs by transpiration, and only partially exhaled, is a matter that has never yet been satisfactorily ascertained. See Scent.
When it was the custom formerly to take the field so soon as the horsemen could see to ride, trail was the sure and certain means by which the hare was found: in a few minutes after the hounds were thrown off, a general clamour of trail ensued, and the inexpressible gratification of seeing all the clue of her night-work unravelled to a view, was sport much superior to a bad chase. Trail is of much less import now, when harriers (at least, in the centrical part of the kingdom) are seldom known to take the field before ten or eleven o'clock in the day, when the very slight and partial remains of trail can be but of small avail: the sole reliance now principally depends upon drawing over the ground most likely, according to the season, with the chance of having a hare found sitting, or the greater probability of her jumping up before them. The paltry custom of field money for hares found sitting, has very considerably warped the judgment from the sporting-like practice of finding the hare by trailing up to her; for the huntsman and whipper-in having caught the pecuniary infection, are poking and prying in every bush, in a hope and eager expectation of obtaining a few shillings, instead of attending to their hounds.