20 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



work they go again with renewed energy, dancing 

 round and round, till the observer cannot choose but 

 smile. This trick they will continue till you are 

 weary of watching. 



There are holes on the hills, not above a yard deep, 

 and entering the slope horizontally, which are said to 

 be used by the hares more in a playful mood than 

 from any real desire of shelter. Yet they dislike wet ; 

 most wild animals do. Birds, on the contrary, find 

 it answer their purpose, grubs and worms abounding 

 at such times. Though the hare is of a wandering 

 disposition, he usually returns to the same form, and, 

 if undisturbed, will use it every day for a length of 

 time, at night perhaps being miles away. If hard 

 pressed by the dogs he will leap a broad brook in fine 

 style, but he usually prefers to cross by a bridge. 

 In the evening, as it grows dusk, if you watch from 

 the elevation of the entrenchment, you may see these 

 creatures steal out into the level cornfield below, 

 first one, then two, presently five or six looming 

 much larger than they really are in the dusk, and 

 seeming to appear upon the scene suddenly. They 

 have a trick of stealing along close to the low mounds 

 which divide arable fields, so that they are unobserved 

 till they turn out into the open ground. 



It is not easy to distinguish a hare when crouching 

 in a ploughed field, his colour harmonizes so well with 

 the clods ; so that an unpractised eye generally fails 

 to note him. An old hand with the gun cannot pass 

 a field without involuntarily glancing along the 



