Note 163 — ARRIAN ON COURSING.
William Dansey translation
Let him be made to feel in the words of Ovid,
non tam Turpe fuit vinci, quàm contendisse decorum.
It is a great point to encourage a young hound, whether he kill or not.
Plutarch remarks in his treatise on the Comparative Instinct of Land and Water Animals, that the Canes Venatici, generally, tear their game and lick up the blood greedily, when they kill it themselves; but if the animal, of which they are in pursuit, expire from exhaustion, before they reach it, they merely wag their tails, and do not lacerate it; showing thereby that the contest was not for the flesh of the animal, but rather for the glory of victory.