124 ANIMALS OF THE 



and to the north in summer. The hare, when 

 it hears the hounds at a distance, flies for some 

 time through a natural impulse, without manag- 

 ing its strength, or consulting any other means 

 but speed for its safety. Having attained some 

 hill or rising ground, and left the dogs so far be- 

 hind that it no longer hears their cries, it stops, 

 rears on its hinder legs, and at length looks back 

 to see if it has not lost its pursuers. But these, 

 having once fallen upon the scent, pursue slowly, 

 and with united skill ; and the poor animal soon 

 again hears the fatal tidings of their approach. 

 Sometimes, when sore hunted, it will start a fresh 

 hare, and squat in the same form ; sometimes it 

 will creep under the door of a sheep-cot, and 

 hide among the sheep ; sometimes it will run 

 among them, and no vigilance can drive it from 

 the flock ; some will enter holes like the rabbit, 

 which the hunters call going to vault ; some will 

 go up one side of the hedge, and come down the 

 other ; and it has been known, that a hare sorely 

 hunted has got upon the top of a quick-set hedge, 

 and run a good way thereon, by which it has 

 effectually evaded the hounds. It is no unusual 

 thing also for them to betake themselves to furze 

 bushes, and to leap from one to another, by which 

 the dogs are frequently misled. However, the 

 first doubling a hare makes is generally a key to 

 all its future attempts of that kind, the latter being 

 exactly like the former. The young hares tread 

 heavier, and leave a stronger scent, than the old, 

 because their limbs are weaker ; and the more 

 this forlorn creature tires, the heavier it treads, 



