THE HARE KIND. 



347 



of such as are thus brought up is always indif- 

 ferent. 



They sleep or repose in their forms by day, 

 and may be said to live only by night." It is 

 then that they go forth to feed and couple. 

 They do not pair, however, but in the rutting- 

 season, which begins in February ; the male 

 pursues and discovers the female by the saga- 

 city of its nose. They are then seen, by moon- 

 light, playing, skipping, and pursuing each 

 other ; but the least motion, the slightest breeze, 

 the falling of a leaf is sufficient to disturb their 

 revels ; they instantly fly off, and each takes a 

 separate way. 



As their limbs are made for running, they 

 easily outstrip all other animals in the begin- 

 ning ; and could they preserve their speed, it 

 would be impossible to overtake them ; but as 

 they exhaust their strength at their first ef- 

 forts, and double back to the place they were 

 started from, they are more easily taken than 

 the fox, which is a much slower animal than 

 they. As fheir hind legs are longer than the 

 fore, they always choose to turn up hill, by 

 which the speed of their pursuers is diminished, 

 while theirs remain the same. Their motions 

 are also without any noise, as they have the 

 sole of the foot furnished with hair; and they 

 seem the only animals that have hair on the in- 

 side of their mouths. 



They seldom live above seven or eight years 

 at the utmost ; they come to their full perfec- 

 tion in a year ; and this multiplied by seven, 

 as in other animals, gives the extent of their' 

 li\ r es. b It is said, however, that the females 

 live longer than the males: of this Mr. Buffbn 

 makes a doubt ; but I am assured that it is so. 

 They pass their lives, in our climate, in solitude 

 and silence ; and they seldom are heard to cry. 

 except when they are seized or wounded. 

 Their voice is not so sharp as the note of some 

 other animals, but more nearly approaching 

 that of the squalling of a child. They are not 

 so wild as their dispositions and their habits 

 seem to indicate ; but are of a complying na- 

 ture, and easily susceptible of a kind of edu- 

 cation. They are easily tamed. They even 

 become fond and caressing, but they are inca- 

 pable of attachment to any particular person, 

 and never can be depended upon ; for, though 

 taken never so young, they regain their native 



a Buffbn, vol. xiii. p. 12. 

 No. 29 & 30. 



Ibid. 



freedom at the first opportunity. As they have 

 a remarkable good ear, and sit upon their hind 

 legs, and use their fore-paws as hands, they 

 have been taught to beat the drum, to dunce 

 to music, and go through the manual exercise. 

 But their natural instincts for their preser- 

 vation are much more extraordinary than those 

 artificial tricks that are taught them. They 

 make themselves a form, particularly in those 

 places where the colour of the grass most re- 

 sembles that of their skin ; it is open to the 

 south in winter, and to the north in summer. 

 The hare, when it hears the hounds at a dis- 

 tance, flies for some time through a natural im- 

 pulse, without managing its strength, or con- 

 sulting any other means but speed for its safe- 

 ty. Having attained some hill or rising ground, 

 and left the dogs so far behind that it no lon- 

 ger hears their cries, it stops, rears on its hin- 

 der legs, and at length looks back to see if it 

 has not lost its pursuers. But these, having 

 once fallen upon the scent, pursue slowly and 

 with united skill, and the poor animal soon 

 again hears the fatal tidings of their approach. 

 Sometimes when sore hunted it will start a 

 fresh hare, and squat in the same form ; some- 

 times it will creep under the door of a sheep- 

 cot, and hide among the sheep ; sometimes it 

 will run among them, and no vigilance can 

 drive it from the flock ; some will enter holes 

 like the rabbit, which the hunters call going to 

 vault ; some will go up one side of the hedge 

 and come down the other ; and it has been 

 known that a hare sorely hunted has got upon 

 the top of a quick-set hedge, and run a good 

 way thereon, by which it has effectually evad- 

 ed the hounds. It is no unusual thing also 

 for them to betake themselves to furze bushes, 

 and to leap from one to another, by which the 

 dogs are frequently misled. However, the 

 first doubling a hare makes is generally a key 

 to all its future attempts of that kind, the lat- 

 ter being exactly like the former. The young 

 hares tread heavier, and leave a stronger scent 

 than the old, because their limbs are weaker ; 

 and the more this forlorn creature tires, the 

 heavier it treads, and the stronger is the scent 

 it leaves. A buck, or male hare, is known by 

 its choosing to run upon hard high-ways, feed- 

 ing farther from the wood-sides, and making 

 its doubling of a greater compass than the fe- 

 male. The male having made a turn or two 

 about its form, frequently leads the hounds five 

 SH 



