HARE SHOOTING. 3^5 



once in both directions, is often the cause of her 

 capture. Her ears can be thrown back to the verj^ 

 base, at will ; thus enabling her to drink in, as it 

 were, the very faintest sound of pursuit. The eyelids 

 of the hare seem to be seldom or never used, as she 

 does not possess "the accessory organ or nictating 

 membrane ; " her eyes are always unveiled, even in 

 sleep, like those of fishes. The tail, or seat of the 

 hare, is black, and white on the under part, short, 

 and in the male usually whitest,— a fact which gives 

 the sportsman a clue to the sex of his game. '' The 

 anatomy of the ear favours its acceptation of sounds 

 generally, but particularly for receiving such as come 

 from behind." Thus the hare lays one ear forward 

 and one behind, hearing, it is said, more perfectly 

 the sounds that issue from her back than those that 

 are straight-forward. The auditive canal is partly 

 bony and partly soft; " and when the skull of a hare 

 is j)laced horizontally before a spectator, the long 

 portion of it is seen to protrude itself nearly half an 

 inch with a backward inclination." It is believed 

 that the age of the hare is from nine or ten to twelve 

 years : it is like the rabbit, of extreme fruitfulness. 

 Hares have enemies so numberless, that were it not 

 for their prolific generations they would soon become 

 extinct. The hare knows the female by the scent, 

 its organs of every sense being exquisitely sensi- 

 tive. When the female is about eleven months old, 

 she begins to breed, and is believed to bring forth 

 young several times in the course of the year : the 



