120 EEMINISCE^TES OF A SPOETSMAN. 



rarely quit their forms ; but in the evening, and at night, 

 come out to feed, and generally return to the usual 

 haunt through the same runs. When pursued by a 

 stoat or a weasel, the hare appears in some measure 

 fascinated by fear, and does not betake itself to its best 

 means of escape — its fleetness of feet — from its great 

 enemy, and which it always has recourse to when pur- 

 sued by greyhounds or harriers, or even a fox ; on the 

 contrary, it hops in a sluggish sort of way on the near 

 approach of the stoat or weasel, which seems possessed 

 of a sort of charm, like that of the rattlesnake and 

 other species of those reptiles, who exercise the same 

 over birds and small animals, by keeping their eye 

 steadfastly fixed on their victim. One can only account 

 for this extraordinary feeling in the animal by attri- 

 buting it to extreme terror. The constant terror and 

 alarm which haunts the hare, will sufficiently account 

 for its being always lean, and in this state best adapted 

 for escaping from many of its formidable enemies by its 

 fleetness. The colour of the hare being a near approach 

 to the soil, conceals her from the sight of her enemies ; 

 and the hare trusts much to this concealment, for 

 they sit so close in their forms that a person may fre- 

 quently walk within two or three yards of them without 

 their moving. Providence has protected the mountain 

 hare of Scotland, and those of Northumberland and 

 Cumberland, by changing, in the winter, the fur from 

 brown to white; thus whilst they lie in their forms, 

 surrounded by snow, they escape the vigilant eyes of 

 the birds of prey, more especially those of the eagle and 

 the larger species of falcons.* 



* In the winter of 1 856 a black hare was shot on Sir Edward Kerrison's 

 estate in Suffolk, which he sent to the Ipswich Museum. 



