HARES. AM) iiARi:-i!rxri\c. i8i 



malformation ; as regards Icelh, the upper jaw lias four incisors (curiously 

 enough, one pair behind anolhei) and twelve niolais, the lower jaw has two 

 incisors ant.! ten molars ■ there is considerable space between the incisors 

 and the molars. 



'■ L'nccrtaiii life, and sure de.nlh." 



AZ/'s U'ell That Ends Well, act ii, Sd-iie 3. 

 '■ The sen^e of ile.ith is most in apprehension ; 

 .'Vn.i the poor beetle, that we tread upon, 

 In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great 

 As when a giant dies." 



Measure for McasutY, act Hi, scene i. 



The habits and customs of the hare have beeir carefully studied by 



generations of sportsmen, keepers, and poachers. The most striking feature 



of poor puss is her excessive gentleness and timidity. La Fontaine writes 



about a hare : — 



Un souffle, unc oiiibrc, ini riciu tout liti doniuiit la ficvre. 



A whistle, a shadow, nothing, everything gives her a scare. 



She makes no show of figiit against any of her numerous enemies, 

 trusting only to her immense powers of flight, and, when these fail, yielding 

 her life without a struggle. The sole cry she ever utters is just when she is' 

 seized ; she then screams piteously, like a child. Even with her own kind 

 she only fights by drumming with her fore paws; but she has been known, in 

 defence of her young, to beat off fierce birds of prey attempting to seize ' 

 them. Some years ago the Field published an account of a raven out-witting 

 a hare. The bird pounced at a leveret ; but the mother was too quick,! 

 springing up and striking the raven with her fore paws, and so driving her off. 

 As the raven slowly retreated the hare foUow-cd, and whenever it came near 

 the ground, sprang at it. The bird decoyed her to a considerable distance, 

 then rose in the air and flew swiftly back ; before the hare could return he 

 had seized the screaming leveret and carried it off. 



The hare is a very prolific animal, generally having two litters each year, 

 the first about March and the second by the end of July ; they have 

 occasionally been known to have even four broods in the year. The usual 

 number of leverets in each litter is two or tliree, but as many as five have 

 been found. If each hare lived to its natural age (some ten or twelve years), 

 that is, did not succumb to one of its numerous enemies, the country would 

 soon be over-run with them, to the detriment of everything else, much as 

 Australia is now over-burdened with rabbits. But the hare has so many foes 

 that their numbers are effectually kept down, and it is only by some amount 

 of preserving that a sufificiency of hares for sporting purposes is maintained. 



An experiment was once made with a brace of hares, which were ke[)t 

 shut up in a walled garden. At the end of a year there were fifty-seven hares 

 in the garden, the original brace and their descendants. One may be allowed 

 to be somewhat incredulous as to the result of this experiment, as it seems 



