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.
TRAIN SCENTS,—formerly so called, but now more frequently termed _drags_, are means by which young hounds may be first entered with old hounds; a body of hounds exercised upon heaths or commons, soon after dawn of day in the summer season: or bets may be decided upon the speed of either HOUNDS or HORSES, by means of such _drag_ or _train scent_. They are of different kinds, and very few hounds will refuse to hunt them: when the scent lies well, the wind is still, and the atmosphere free from variation by storms or rain, they will carry it _breast high_. The skin of hare or fox, newly killed; a slice of bacon, and a red herring firmly united; or either, plentifully impregnated with _oil_ of _aniseed_; will lead hounds in full cry across any country over which the drag is directed.
