SOLITARY HABITS OF HARES 25 



almost unknown thing to put up two hares which 

 have ' seated ' together. Even the young ones, 

 as soon as they are weaned, appear to separate 

 themselves, and will lie couched some fifty or 

 sixty yards away from the doe. In hilly countries 

 hares prefer to lie as near to the top of a hill as 

 the weather permits of their doing. The reason 

 for this is probably because the length of their 

 hind - legs enables them to travel uphill better 

 than down. When, however, they are forced to 

 take downhill, feeling their inability to descend 

 in a straight line, they invariably travel in an 

 oblique direction. If pressed hard down a very 

 steep incline, they are apt, at times, to turn 

 head over heels. It is unusual to find hares 

 ' seated ' under a hedgerow, except in stormy 

 weather, when no other protection is at hand. 

 Asa rule, they prefer to make their * forms ' in the 

 centre of a field, probably for greater security. In 

 mild, drizzly weather they generally move up to 

 the higher grounds, or seek the shelter of a gorse 

 bush. 



As everyone is aware, a hare is capable of 

 giving a pack of hounds infinitely more trouble to 

 kill than a fox. It is the exception for a hare to 

 run straight away from hounds for any great 

 distance, though occasionally it will take a line 

 as straight as that of a fox. The account of a 

 run with some harriers in one of our Eastern 

 counties, in which, after affording a rattling gallop, 

 the hare took out to sea in the Wash, was 



