28o LEPORID.E— LEPUS 



different from those of her successor — and cinders were also 

 eaten. The record by Mr George Mawson, 1 that the stomach of 

 a hare killed in winter contained a number of haws, is probably 

 exceptional, as is a similar one in regard to holly berries. 2 

 Mr Woodruffe- Peacock states that when in good health hares 

 swallow enough moisture off the grass to quench their thirst, 

 but when sick they are great drinkers at ponds or streams. 



The pitiful screech of a wounded or frightened hare is 

 well known, and has been likened to the cry of a child ; 

 the horror of hearing it has caused not a few sportsmen 

 to give up shooting these rodents. But, apart from this 

 penetrating scream of anguish, few people appear to have 

 heard their voice, and most naturalists credit them with 

 being very silent mammals. If this be the case, it is 

 probable that the silence is due not to inability but choice, 

 for the Irish Hare possesses no contemptible vocabulary, 

 and it is unlikely that in this respect it is inferior to its 

 larger relative. 



Besides their cries of pain or distress, hares are capable of 

 uttering other sounds. Inasmuch as these are seldom heard 3 

 and are known only to close observers, it seems well to quote 

 freely from the few writers who have described them ; their 

 accounts do not agree in all respects. Mr Drane, 4 after 

 many years' experience of tame hares, distinguishes the cry 

 of sudden fear from that expressing pain. Both sounds are 

 emitted with open mouth, and resemble the word " annt " or 

 "aunt" reiterated. Mr Drane believes that this is the only 

 open-mouthed voice of the hare. But it utters with closed 

 mouth other sounds or grunts having a variety of meanings, and 

 which resemble the human " don't," " oont," and "ont." Mr 

 Drane could always make his pets say "don't," by threatening 

 them with a quick movement of the hand, as if to seize them 

 suddenly, they being so tame as to know that no harm was 



1 Zoologist^ 1867, 604. 2 The Hare, cit. supra, 27. 



3 Charles Darwin, for instance, remarks {The Expression of the Emotions in 

 Man and Animals, 1872, 83) that "Hares and rabbits . . . never, I believe, use 

 their vocal organs except in the extremity of suffering"; but in a note to Francis 

 Darwin's edition of 1901, 88, the author is stated to have subsequently received 

 information that hares cry to their young. 



4 MS., and Field, 25th March 1905, 504. 



