THE IRISH HARE 341 



forced to slip out of the way to avoid being run over. I was 

 myself witness of the attempt of a greyhound to race a car in 

 which I was travelling. The dog was only left behind when 

 the speed indicator reached ^y 1 miles an hour, and, allowing 

 for the superior pace to be expected from a highly trained 

 animal habitually used for coursing, a maximum rate of 40 to 

 45 miles an hour may be credited to a greyhound and of about 

 30 miles an hour to a hare. The pace of a hare is thus about 

 three-fourths that of a greyhound, and nearly as fast as the 

 average Derby winner, that race being run at an average speed 

 of 30 to 35 miles an hour ; though, were it possible to ascertain 

 for comparison the racehorse's best sprint for a quite short 

 distance, a very different result might be expected. 2 



In Fig. 49 are shown diagrammatically three types of the 

 spoor of Irish Hares. When travelling slow (A) three of the 

 four feet fall more or less in a straight line, and are about 

 equidistant from each other ; one hind foot is in advance, the 

 other a little to a flank and in rear, with the two fore feet 

 following. There is a distinct gap between each phase or 

 group of four. As the pace increases (B) the distance between 

 the phases is lengthened, and the phases themselves are, as it 

 were, pulled out. At still greater speeds (C) the action changes, 

 and each pair of fore and hind feet, markedly the latter, 

 come down almost simultaneously ; the phases thus are 

 altered, so that the spoor resolves itself into a series of roughly 

 paired marks at distances which are alternately double and half 

 of each other, as explained below. The hind legs appear to 

 propel the animal forward about twice as far as the fore 

 legs. The diagrams show the somewhat surprising result, 

 that the motion of the legs is more continuous and approxi- 

 mates more nearly to that of a wheel when the pace is slow 

 than when it is fast ; in the latter case progression resolves 

 itself into a series of leaps, in which the fore legs try to bridge 

 over the distance traversed by the body at each effort of the 

 powerful hind legs, and always touch the ground (unless the 



1 I have seen a large mongrel terrier attain about 25 miles an hour. 



2 Much interest is also taken in the speed of foxes, cheetahs, and wild asses, the 

 powers of the latter having been known to Arrian, who wrote in Greek about the end 

 of the first century B.C. (op. cit. supra, p. 244) ; they are mentioned in the articles on 

 Fox and Horse. 



