THE HARE. 151 



THE HARE 



Is an animal so generally known, that a minute description is 

 unnecessary. It is proper, however, to remark, that being fur- 

 nished with long ears, which are readily moved and directed with 

 facility to every quarter, it is instantaneously warned of the ap- 

 proach of danger ; and the largeness and prominency of its eyes, 

 adapted to the perception of objects in every direction, equally 

 contribute to its safety. Its swiftness, also, is such, that it soon 

 leaves its pursuers behind ; and its enemies can seize it only by 

 surprise, or by wearying it out with long and persevering pur- 

 suit. The hind-legs of the hare being much longer than those 

 before, and very strong and muscular, give it a singular facility 

 of running up a hill ; an advantage of which, from an instinctive 

 knowledge of its powers, it seldom fails to avail itself. 



Thus formed for escape, apprehensive of every danger, and 

 attentive to every alarm, this inoffensive animal might be sup- 

 posed to live in a state of tolerable security ; but every rapacious 

 beast and bird is its enemy ; and man, more formidable than all, 

 makes use of every artifice to obtain so delicious an article of 

 food for his table. 



Were we to enumerate the various stratagems which human 

 ingenuity has invented for taking this timid creature, we might 

 also enter into a long detail of its contrivances for evading pur- 

 suit. The hare frequently runs to a pool of water, and swims 

 to a cluster of rushes growing in the middle, where it conceals 

 itself from the view of the dogs, or crosses a stream in order to 

 break their scent. It will sometimes run into a sheep-fold, and 

 lie down among the sheep, or leap upon an old wall, and hide 

 itself among the ivy, or weeds growing on the top ; and Fouil- 

 loux says, that he has seen a hare, which, after having run more 

 than two hours before the dogs, pushed another hare from its 

 seat, and took possession of it, thus concealing itself at the 

 other's risk. 



The hare derives a considerable degree of safety from its co- 

 lour resembling that of stubble, or fallow ground : in some of the 

 northern regions it turns white in winter, and is scarcely distin- 

 guishable from the snow, which demonstrates the attention of the 

 Author of Nature to the preservation of his creatures. 



Mr. Borlase, in his History of Cornwall, gives an account of a 

 hare which was so completely tamed, as to lie quietly under a 

 chair in a common sitting-room, feed from the hand, and, after 

 occasionally regaling in the garden, return to the house, as its 

 proper habitation : its evenings were always spent with a spaniel 

 and a greyhound, which slept quietly on the same hearth, and 



