Varying Hare 



venture forth and hop away to the nearest regular path or road- 

 way used in common by all the hares in the vicinity. These 

 paths are usually pretty straight and follow the same course the 

 year round, often extending in an interrupted sort of way for a quarter 

 of a mile or more with numerous side paths or cross roads of less 

 extent, leading off in the direction of their feeding grounds. After 

 following them for a little distance the hares usually strike off at 

 random into the undergrowth, nibbling and browsing here and 

 there and nosing about for vagrant leaves of grass and clover 

 such as spring up at intervals even in the darkest forests. 



Throughout the warmer months they have a large and varied 

 assortment of herbs to choose from, and it seems not wholly 

 improbable that they should also feed occasionally on berries and 

 mushrooms. 



The young hares from the very first are provided with no 

 more adequate shelter than that furnished by the leaves above 

 them, and evidently must be left quite unprotected as often as 

 their mother is obliged to find food for herself, as the old males 

 are said not only to exhibit no feeling of responsibility in the 

 matter of bringing up their offsprings, but even to kill them 

 wantonly whenever the opportunity offers. 



As soon as they are able to take care of themselves, or even 

 before, judging from outward appearances, the young ones are 

 turned adrift to support themselves as best they may. The matter 

 of finding food at that season is easy enough, but to avoid the 

 numerous enemies that beset them must be much more difficult 

 and I doubt if one out of a dozen ever attains its growth. 



As winter approaches and the frosts cut off their supply of 

 food, they find themselves compelled to depend more and more 

 upon the bark of young trees and bushes, birch and soft maple 

 and wild apple trees. 



When the buds of the gray birch begin to swell, as they 

 do late in the winter, the hares seem to prefer them to all other 

 food and often wander considerable distances in search of trees 

 with low growing branches, or clusters of young trees of last 

 season's growth whose tops are still within their reach; and a 

 hare standing erect on its hind feet, as is their habit at such 

 times, is able to reach much higher than might at first be supposed. 



The tall stalks of the blackberry and young trees a half inch 

 or less in diameter they cut off close to the ground or the sur- 



79 



