206 HARE DEFENDS ITS YOUNG. 



full-grown young ones were secured and put into 

 a sack. Their cries brought the old otters around 

 the boat during the whole of the night. The next 

 day they ascended the river for at least ten miles ; 

 and yet, whenever the young otters made a wail- 

 ing noise, the otters not only surrounded the boat, 

 but even attempted to get into it. It was difficult, 

 if not impossible, to ascertain whether the parents 

 had followed the boat that distance, although it is 

 most probable that this was the case. At all events, 

 it shews the sympathy of these animals for those of 

 their species, which were in distress, and their own 

 fearlessness of danger in their endeavours to re- 

 lieve them. 



A Hare is one of the most timid of animals, and 

 yet affection will overcome its fears. A friend of 

 mine, in one of his walks, was attended by his dog, 

 who caught a leveret. The mother, on hearing its 

 cries, came up to the dog, stood close to it on its 

 hind legs, and evidently tried to induce the dog to 

 follow it, and to quit the young one. A person, 

 on whose veracity I can depend, assured me that 

 he had seen a hare beat off a stoat several times 

 that had attacked one of its young. The gardener 

 of a friend of mine, a Suffolk clergyman, once saw 

 a rabbit, that had young, drive a weazel across a 

 field, that had come to its nest, by drumming with 

 its feet on the animal's back. 



While on the subject of Stoats, I may mention 



