THE HARE. 105 



numbers of their skins are imported into England from 

 those parts of the world where the animal most abounds. 

 This timid creature sleeps in the day, yet still its eyes 

 are never closed ; and night is the period when it re- 

 freshes itself with food ; it lives upon roots, leaves, 

 fruits, and corn ; but prefers such plants as are fur- 

 nished with a milky juice : in winter they will strip 

 the bark from trees ; but they are particularly fond of 

 the birch : when kept tame, they are fed with lettuce 

 and parsley ; but their flavour is not equal to those 

 which run wild. 



Though this animal * may be tamed, it can never 

 become attached, and, at the first opportunity, will 

 return to its original wild state ; yet some of them have 

 been taught to sit like a dog, to beat a drum, and even 

 to dance : but their natural instinct for self-preserva- 

 tion is much more extraordinary than these artificial 

 tricks ; and their form, or bed, is made with as much 

 ingenuity as if they were endowed with reason and 

 sense. This form they contrive to make in that part 

 of the grass which the sun has tinged to the colour of 

 their skin ; in the winter it opens towards the south, 

 but in the summer that aperture is to the north. When 

 the hare first hears the hounds at a distance, it flies 

 forward with the utmost speed, always makes towards 

 a rising ground, and, when it has gained the eminence, 

 stops to look whether its pursuers are near : though for 

 some time it is able to outrun its foes, it leaves a fatal 

 scent behind, which completely directs them in their 



* The hare goes -but thirty days with young, and produces three or 

 at a birth, and generally breeds several times in the year : the young 

 ones are brought forth with open eyes ; the dam suckles them about 

 twenty days, and then leaves them to shift for themselves ; but they sel- 

 dom live more than seven years. 



