PREFACE 



Whilst few, If any, animals have more enemies 

 than the hare, none perhaps is better endowed 

 with instincts to outwit them. 



As that great mediaeval hunter, the Master of 

 Game, said In 1402 : ''There is no man in this 

 world that would say that any hound can unravel 

 that which a hare has done, or that could find 

 her. For she will go the length of a bowshot or 

 more by one way, and ruse again by another and 

 then she will take her way by another side and 

 the same she shall do ten, twelve or twenty times, 

 then she will come into some hedge or thicket 

 and shall make semblance to abide there and 

 then will make crosswards ten or twelve times 

 and will make her ruses and then she will take 

 some false path and shall go thence a great way, 

 and such semblance she will make many times 

 before she goes to her seat." 



Shifts such as these, probably unrivalled in 

 their subtlety, are embodied in the incidents, 

 based on observation or record, which make up 



