NATURAL HISTORY OF THE RABBIT 25 



after a rabbit is pushed from its ' seat '^when it runs 

 its fastest — and after the hare is started, uncertain, 

 timidly cantering off, but occasionally racing away 

 at a speed which few four-footed creatures excel. The 

 rabbit, with its short legs, only half the length of a 

 hare's, and its shorter body, twists and swerves aside 

 with a jerky motion, and really seems to be going at 

 a tremendous pace. The hare, with her long legs, 

 and the stride and grace of a racehorse, moves away 

 so evenly that most people do not realise her true 

 speed. No one who has shot at a hare can doubt 

 her superior pace. 



Sportsmen who shoot much over marshes, and 

 districts where dykes and drains abound, must have 

 noticed that hares, and occasionally rabbits also, will 

 take to the water when hard pressed. Hares have a 

 great liking for sitting out upon the higher ground of 

 the saltings, and there, of course, when overtaken by 

 a spring-tide, they are sometimes forced to swim the 

 creeks in order to reach dry land. Rabbits probably 

 have less occasion for exercising their swimming 

 powers ; nevertheless they have been occasionally ob- 

 served to swim well. In October, 1897, Mr. H. Sharp, 

 author of an excellent book on ' Wild Fowling,' was 

 one of a party shooting hares on an Essex ' salting.' 

 During the day much amusement w^as caused by the 



