1 66 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



country as it is, the season's kill of hares as recorded on 

 that estate, probably does not now amount to one-third 

 of the proportions obtainable prior to the passing of the 

 Ground Game Act. On the Yorkshire estates of the 

 Earl of Londesborough, where, on the Wolds near 

 Market Weighton, twenty or more years ago, I have 

 seen exceptionally heavy shooting, the bags of this 

 variety of game would compare very favourably, or 

 even exceed, those made in the southern county above- 

 mentioned. 



The Hares Preservation Act of 1892 half-heartedly 

 attempts to provide some sort of close time for the over- 

 persecuted hare by enacting that in Great Britain 

 neither hare nor leveret shall be sold or exposed for 

 sale during the months of March, April, May, June, or 

 July. In Ireland stricter protective measures are in 

 force, the Hares Preservation (Ireland) Act of 1879 

 forbidding the killing or taking of any hare or leveret 

 between the 2Oth day of April and the I2th day of 

 August in any year, under a penalty of twenty shillings, 

 together with costs of conviction. 



Hares commence to breed when a year old ; the 

 female generally brings forth one or two young at a 

 birth, the period of gestation being thirty days. As 

 many as five young, commonly known as leverets, are 

 now and again produced, and some females have two or 

 three litters in favourable seasons. Leverets, unlike the 

 young rabbits, are clothed with fur and have their sight 

 from birth. Hares do not pair, and as the males, 

 usually called " jacks," harry the females greatly when 

 the latter are in season, also fighting amongst themselves 

 most strenuously, it is advisable to take all possible 

 steps for the due thinning out of the jack hares at the 



