PHEASANT-SHOOTING. 785 



twelve months tlie garden was examined, and the produce 

 was fifty-seven Lares, including the original parents. 



The breast of the hare is narrow, and at the same time the 

 chest is most capacious. During the time of its being 

 hunted, the lungs are in a continual state of violent expan- 

 sion, and by the frequent inspiration and expiration be- 

 come in the end so vastly distended, as to require a much 

 larger space than is assigned for the purpose ; the chest, 

 therefore, is fashioned to receive more breath, or give the 

 lungs more room to perform that office, than any other 

 creature. 



The hare lives to six or seven years, and comes to maturity 

 in less than one : the young are known by the easy breaking 

 of the under jaw-bone ; and the same process will determine 

 the age of rabbits. The young are also distinguished by 

 feeling the knee-joints of the fore-legs : when the heads of 

 the two bones which form the joints are so continuous that 

 little or no space is to be perceived between them, the hare 

 is old ; on the contrary, should there be a perceptible separa- 

 tion between the two bones, the animal is young ; and is 

 more or less so, as the two bones are more or less separated. 

 The cleft in the lips spreading very much, and the claws 

 being blunt and ragged, and the ears dry and tough, are like- 

 wise signs of age. Oji the contrary, when the ears tear 

 easily, the cleft of the lip is narrow, and the claws are 

 smooth and sharp, the hare is young. The body will be stiff 

 and the flesh of a pale colour when newly killed ; if limber, 

 and the flesh turning dark, it is stale. 



PHEASANT-SHOOTING. 



Springers and cockers are the best dogs for pheasant-shoot- 

 ing, their small size enabling them to find their way through 

 thick covers and brushwood, where it would be impossible for 



5 H 



