782 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY. 



ran herself dead before the greyhounds touched her : this 

 extensive course, in so short a time, is a strong proof of the 

 strength and swiftness of the hare. Horses have been as 

 much distressed in keeping up for their riders to see a 

 course as in much longer chases with hounds. A hare was 

 found close to the town of Bottisham, in Cambridgeshire, and 

 which took away for the Six-mile Bottom ; twenty-two horses 

 started, but only one could make a gallop at the conclusion 

 of the course : the hare (which was within fifty paces of the 

 cover) was dead some yards before the greyhounds, who were 

 obliged to be bled to recover them. 



THE HARE. 



The hare is so well known that a specific description of it 

 is unnecessary ; we shall merely show that Nature, ever 

 bountiful to her creatures, has, to this defenceless animal, 

 been largely so. Its ears are so constructed that they con- 

 vey the most minute sounds, and warn her from the distant 

 danger. Under pursuit, the hare reaps but little benefit 

 from her ears sideways or straight before, and her chief ex- 

 cellency in hearing arises from her sensibility to hounds 

 from behind. This is the perfection and primary cause to 

 which her preservation is owing, the faculty of running being 

 only a secondary quality ; but to perform which function, her 

 legs are remarkably muscular, especially the hinder, which 

 are also very long ; their length giving the hare that singular 

 superiority over her pursuers in ascending steep places, and 

 so sensible is the animal of this as always to make towards 

 the rising ground when started. The eyes of the hare are 

 so situated as to enable her, when at rest on her form, to 

 observe without difficulty, and almost without motion of the 

 head, a whole circle ; they are so protuberant that the lids 

 axe too short to cover them when asleep. She moves her 



