24 THE RABBIT 



some difference of opinion prevails. On this point 

 we are disposed to agree with Mr. Allan Gordon 

 Cameron, of Ledaig, N.B., who, writing in The Field 

 of November 30, 1895, gives the following result of 

 his experience : — 



' My brother and I used to course both hares and 

 rabbits on Costa Hill in Orkney, where the turf is 

 smooth and undulating, the grass, storm-swept with 

 Atlantic spray, remarkably sweet, and the hares and 

 rabbits constitutionally vigorous. A little greyhound 

 bitch we had, who was wonderfully smart at getting 

 away, used to account for most of the rabbits lying 

 outside a radius of fifty yards, or thereabouts, from 

 the burrow ; but she could not have picked up a hare 

 in a similar distance ; and sometimes a strong hare 

 dipping over the cliff after a long run, would fairly 

 beat our four dogs — two of them powerful brutes, that 

 would stop a deer single-handed. Our impression is 

 that a rabbit gets up its top speed at once, and has 

 no spurt at a pinch ; but a hare requires pressing, will 

 not get properly extended unless pressed, and answers 

 splendidly to every effort of the dogs that may be 

 almost touching her.' 



A rabbit is said to run faster than a hare for 

 thirty-five yards ; and no one would think of com- 

 paring the two but for the few seconds that elapse 



