HAEE-HUNTiNG.] THE DOG, AND ITS VARIETIES; [haee-htinting. 



day, one can often find four or five with one 

 female. The old hares are called ramblers, in 

 the spring, when they stroll about to greut 

 distances to seek for the females. If the dogs 

 run after one to a great distance, and the place 

 of finding is left quiet, it is certain that the 

 others will return to the same place. About 

 Midsummer is the most difficult time to get 

 them up, when the juniper-bush is in bloom, 

 and all flowers throw out such a strong scent : 

 the hare, also, does not require to go far for 

 food. I have often seen, by the dew in the 

 fields, and in the wood, that he has not moved 

 ten steps round about ; when he has hit upon 

 buckbean (wattwappling), or any other pala- 

 table food. In autumn and winter, the hare sits 

 close ; but in October and November the dogs 

 can easily enough get him up. It helps, as 

 they say, to get the hare on foot, by shouts, 

 shots, and rattles. One may very well use 

 five or six, or even a greater number of dogs. 



" "When they can be tracked on the snow, 

 only one dog should be used, as several de- 

 stroy, for each other, the track of the hare 

 when she springs off"; they are also an im- 

 pediment to the sportsman while he is rint^ino-, 

 by frightening the hare from her seat. In 

 autumn, the hare frequents the open country, 

 and grounds covered with small juniper 

 bushes ; and when the snow falls, it sits some- 

 times in the snow-drifts, and in the furrows of 

 corn-fields. When it is hard weather, it will 

 sit two or three nights without going from its 

 seat. During a thaw, it sits often on stones, 

 and in open places ; but in severe cold, in 

 thickets and bushes. If the country for 

 tracking will permit, that is to say, if it 

 be sufficiently open, it is more convenient, 

 to ride about and search for its track along 

 the fence of corn-fields, as it goes in and 

 out; for, to follow all the windings and 

 turnings which it makes in the course of the 

 night, is both fatiguing and consumes time. 

 As long as you find the track of the hare to 

 be so that the back feet immediately follow 

 each other, it is a proof that it has no in- 

 clination to rest; but wlien it begins to go 

 backwards and forwards in the same track, 

 and makes one or two leaps, and sets all 

 its four feet together almost in one point, 

 it is certain that you liave it very near, and 

 the time has arrived not to follow the track 

 430 



more, but to ring it immediately. If it has 

 gone farther than the first ring, you must 

 make a new one. Whilst performing this ope- 

 ration, the sportsman should not halt, as then 

 the hare rises easily from its seat. When it 

 is ascertained that it has sprung up, the doo- 

 is immediately to be let loose. The hare is 

 caught with snares in fences, or, with the 

 usual gins, in woods and hedges. Eoasted, it 

 — especially a young hare — makes a good dish 

 at table." 



In speaking of the hare, in another part of 

 his work, Mr. GreifF says — " At a hunt, when 

 a female hare was shot, seven young ones, all 

 alive, were cast to tlie dogs ; a bitch which 

 had lately pupped, took one of the young ones, 

 laid it in a bush, and licked and dried it ; 

 and we sportsmen had a difficulty to get it from 

 her, as she constantly licked and caressed it, 

 as if she wanted to give it suck. It was 

 carried liorae, and fed with milk. Eight days 

 afterwards it was killed, by an unlucky acci- 

 dent, to the great mortification of all the hunt- 

 ing party." 



In the chronological history of Great Bri- 

 tain, hare-hunting takes precedence of fox- 

 hunting. " Hare- hunting," says a writer in 

 the Encyclo. Brit., " claims precedence of fox- 

 hunting in the sporting chronology of Great 

 Britain, and, we believe, of all other countries, 

 inasmuch as a hare has always been esteemed 

 excellent eating ; and a fox the rankest of car- 

 rion. We gather from Xenophon that it was 

 practised before his day, and he wrote fully 

 upon it above three centuries before Christ ; 

 both hounds and nets being then used in the 

 pursuit. Neither can we marvel at hare-hunt- 

 ing being the favourite diversion in all nations 

 given to sporting, where the use of the horse 

 in the field had not become common. But 

 we will go a point fiirther than this, and assert, 

 that how inferior soever may be the estima- 

 tion in which hunting the hare is held in 

 comparison with hunting the fox, no animal of 

 the chase affords so much hunting as she 

 does." In this we concur; and Mr. Beckford 

 agrees with us, for he says, that "the hare, 

 when properly hunted in a good country, will 

 show more hunting, to those fond of seeing 

 hounds hunt, than any other animal." In an 

 Essay on Hunting, by the County Squire, he 

 says — " The chase after the fox or stag is 



