582 THE HARE. 
stigmatizing it as cowardly or timid, because it runs away when it is hunted. Half a 
hundred horsemen, together with a pack of dogs, band together in pursuit of one 
defenceless Hare, which is likely to run away under such circumstances. There is hardly 
any animal, from an elephant or lion downwards, that would not run away in like manner ; 
and it is very unfair to brand the poor Hare with an offensive epithet because it does not 
attempt to fight a field of horsemen and a pack of hounds. 
However disposed the Hare may be to flight, when matched against such overwhelming 
odds, she is realky a courageous animal when more fairly dealt with. 
A countryman had captured a young leveret in a furrow, and was proceeding to mark 
it by notching its ears, when he was interrupted in his work by the mother Hare, which 
flew at him with singular courage, and struck so fiercely with her feet that she tore his 
hands rather severely. Finding that she could not release her child, she stood within a 
few feet of the captor, and waited patiently until he liberated the little Hare, with which 
she went off. The Hare is a very pugnacious animal, and is in the habit of waging the 
most savage fights with those of its own species. 
The very long and powerful hind legs of the Hare enable it to make prodigious bounds, 
and to cover a considerable space of ground at every leap. The hinder limbs are, indeed, 
of such great proportionate length that the animal does not walk, but proceeds by a series 
of hops or leaps. The Hare is so constituted that it never becomes fat, however rich and 
fertile may be the pasture in which it feeds, and is therefore enabled to run for a very great 
distance without being fatigued, as would be the case if its muscles were loaded with fat. 
It can also leap to a considerable height, and has been known to jump over a perpendicular 
wall of eight feet in height in order to escape from its pursuers. 
It is a wonderfully cunning animal, and is said by many who have closely studied its 
habits to surpass the fox in ready ingenuity. Appearing to understand the method by 
which the hounds are enabled to track its footsteps, it employs the most crafty manceuvres 
for the purpose of throwing them off the scent. Sometimes it will run forwards for a 
considerable distance, and then, after returning for a few hundred yards on the same 
track, will make a great leap at right angles to its former course, and lie quietly hidden 
while the hounds run past its spot of concealment. It then jumps back again to its 
track, and steals quietly out of sight in one direction, while the hounds are going in 
the other. 
The hare also displays great ingenuity in running over the kind of soil that will best 
suit the formation of her feet, and be most disadvantageous to her pursuers, and has been 
known, on more than one occasion, to break the line of scent most efficiently by leaping 
into some stream or lake, and swimming for a considerable distance before she takes to 
the land again. A Hare has been seen to brave the salt waters and tossing waves of the 
sea when closely pressed by the hounds, and to evade them by its bold ingenuity. Some- 
times an old crafty Hare will baftle the hounds for a succession of seasons, until it is as 
familiar to the hunters as any of the dogs or horses, and makes the hounds so ashamed 
of their failures that they cannot be induced to chase it with any good will. 
As may be supposed from the fact of its taking the water, the Hare is a good swimmer, 
and can sustain itself upon the surface for no inconsiderable time. One of these animals 
was seen to swim to an island which was at least a mile distant from the main land, and 
to perform its task right bravely. The clever animal actually waited upon the shore until 
slack water, when the tide is not running, and having ascertained this fact by frequently 
examining the rippling waves as they came curling over the beach, launched itself boldly 
upon the water, and swain rapidly to the nearest point of land. 
Although possessed of a remarkably delicate sense of hearing, and furnished with very 
quick eyesight, the Hare seems to employ those senses upon objects which are behind her 
rather than on those in her front. On more than one occasion a Hare has been known to 
swerve in her course, and to run into the very midst of the hounds without having either 
seen or heard them. : 
_ The Hare does not live in burrows, like the rabbit, but only makes a slight depression 
in the ground, in which she lies so flatly pressed to the earth that she can hardly be 
distinguished from the soil and dried herbage among which she has taken up her 
