HARES. 115 



breeding. Young growth, sowings and plantations are often 

 completely destroyed by them. 



The damage done by hares, squirrels and dormice is not 

 so great, being confined to individual plants, and these animals 

 do not become so numerous as rabbits, mice and voles. 



3. Protective Rules. 



Proper precautions must be taken in the reproduction, 

 tending and utilisation of woods. Enemies of these animals 

 must be spared. Shooting, trapping, poisoning may be 

 employed. More detail is given separately for each kind. 



SECTION II. HARES. 

 1. Damage Done. 



The common hare is found throughout Europe, except in 

 mountains and the extreme north. In Scotland it occurs 

 only in the lowlands and in valleys. In the British Isles the 

 mountain hare is met with only in Scotland, and in Ireland, 

 where it is known as the blue hare. At lower latitudes it 

 turns white during winter, but remains white throughout the 

 year in the extreme north. 



The hare injures woody plants in winter by biting and 

 gnawing their bark. Buds and young shoots of beech, horn- 

 beam, elm, ash, maple and aspen are chiefly bitten, the 

 conifers less, and spruce and Scots pine least of all. 



As the hare affects certain localities, the damage is restricted 

 in area, but very extensive where it prevails ; so that a single 

 hungry hare may cause considerable damage in young growth 

 of beech on sunny situations, which it frequents in winter. 

 The sharp teeth, cutting in pairs, give very distinct markings 

 on plants attacked by hares. 



As regards peeling, in snowy winters the one-year-old shoots 

 of the robinia and other Leguminosae, including broom, are 

 frequently stripped of bark, and the wood gnawed as shown in 

 Fig. 30. Among ordinary forest plants, young beech and 

 sycamore suffer most from peeling ; older trees with rough bark 

 escape. The hare frequently damages fruit-trees in orchards, 

 chiefly the apple, next the cherry, least of all, the pear. 



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