70 A PHILOSOPHER WITH NATURE 



or polecat much resembles that of the rabbit. It is 

 in both cases inexplicable. The hare, which could 

 easily far outpace its enemy, shambles uneasily 

 forward ; it allows its pursuer to overtake it, and 

 it often, like the rabbit, squeals as if in mortal 

 terror long before the bloodsucker fastens upon it. 

 The hare breeds in this country several times in 

 the year, and with all the protection which is afforded 

 it, the destruction which goes on must be immense 

 or otherwise the land would be overrun with hares. 

 The mortality amongst the early litters is great, 

 particularly in cold and inclement seasons. It is 

 indeed a singular fact in natural history that the 

 hare, every detail of whose body is related to the 

 fact that it numbers nearly every beast or bird of 

 prey amongst its enemies, should be so delicate in 

 constitution. A cold night in spring, as many an 

 observer must have noticed, kills numbers of the 

 young in the early litters. Shock or slight injury 

 is also readily fatal, even when growth is well 

 advanced. 



The stories told about the intelligence of hares 

 when being hunted by dogs are innumerable. The 

 animal will return over its scent, cross and recross 

 it with springs, and make off at right angles. It 

 will go down one side of a hedge and then up the 

 other, passing its pursuers with only the screen 

 between. It will take to water or endeavour to 

 lose the scent amongst domestic animals. We have 

 even known it to jump on the shoulders of a man 

 when hard pressed. Even the little leverets, as 

 they hide in the grass in the spring, seem to have a 

 highly-developed sense of the necessity for cunningly 

 meeting the dangers to which they are exposed. 



