HARES AND RABBITS 221 



aspect, and this is sometimes attributed to hybrids between the 

 hare and the rabbit ; but as a matter of fact these two distinct 

 genera have never been known to breed together. 



The hare is a soHtary animal in comparison with the rabbit. 

 The sexes really only meet and live in company during the 

 breeding season, which may be March and August. (For, in 

 spite of statements to the contrary regarding the number of 

 broods to which the hare gives birth, it is doubtful whether 

 under normal circumstances this creature breeds more than 

 twice a year.) During the month of August, however, when 

 the grain is cut and lying in sheaves on the harvest-field, the 

 hares flock to the feast at eventide. Not infrequently the little 

 companies consist of a mother and her grown-up ofl^spring. 

 The author has taken advantage of this circumstance in his 

 painting to illustrate a number of attitudes which the hare 

 assumes, but it must be distinctly understood that the compo- 

 sition of the painting is not to imply that under ordinary 

 circumstances hares congregate together as do rabbits. 



The hare commonly feeds in the evening, and also perhaps 

 in the early morning. In the daytime and during the latter 

 part of the night it retires to its " form." This is a smooth 

 oblong space generally in a slight depression between banks of 

 vegetation, the surface of the form being smoothed by the 

 stamping of the animal's feet, and its lying on the thin grass 

 and herbage, which becomes dry and flattened into hay with 

 the pressure and warmth of the animal's body. It probably 

 passes backwards and forwards over the spot where it intends 

 to make its form, thus clearing a tunnel through the herbage. 

 When an enemy passes near where the hare is lying, it usually 

 remains squatting on its form, with ears closely pressed to the 

 body, hoping thus to conceal itself from the eye ; but if the 

 hare is out pasturing and hears a noise, its first impulse is to 

 sit upright with erect ears, after which it either attempts con- 

 cealment by lying flat, or takes to flight in a bounding gallop,^ 



^ Hares and rabbits never progress by moving the legs alternately. They 

 gallop and jump, but do not walk. 



