GAME. 219 



brown bare, and the wood hare, which is very like the 

 Scotch hare, as it changes its colour with the season. I 

 saw several of them quite white, when I first went to 

 Poland ; whereas, in summer, they are a brown-grey. 



' The huntsman came home one evening with a large 

 dog badger. It appeared that a hare, which he had been 

 chasing with his dogs, took refuge in a small opening in a 

 bank, which proved to be one of the entrances into the 

 badger's hiding-place. As the hare ran in at one end, the 

 startled badger sprang out at the other, almost into the 

 jaws of the dogs; and was soon despatched by them and 

 by the huntsman's whip. The poor hare also was after- 

 wards pulled out of her hiding-place, brought home in a 

 sack, and, after a few days, produced again to furnish 

 sport (as it was called) for a brace of young greyhounds. 

 -But the confinement had so broken the spirits of poor 

 puss, that she became, as might be expected, an easy prey 

 to her pursuers. 



1 The common dogs of this country are a wretched 

 mongrel race, and a most intolerable nuisance. They are 

 to be seen in the house of every peasant, and crowding 

 the streets of every village, yelping at the heels of every 

 traveller, and flying out upon him, whether in carriage or 

 on horseback or on foot, with great ferocity. 



' The greyhounds are of a strong build, and far heavier 

 than the thoroughbred animals seen at the coursing 

 meetings in England. Many of them have long feather 

 on their tails and legs ; and these are much superior to 

 the smoother sort, being quite as fleet, and endowed with 

 higher courage and greater powers of endurance. The 

 amusement of coursing is oftentimes greatly impeded by 

 the quantity of rough and sharp stones with which the 

 surface of the soil is covered. Indeed, I one day saw a 

 poor greyhound so mutilated by one of these stones that 

 it was found necessary to destroy him. 



'The pointers are, as a c'ass, very inferior dogs. One 

 indeed, was to be regarded as an exception a coarse, 

 heavy animal in appearance, but with a most sensitive 



