HARE KIND. 125 



and the stronger is the scent it leaves. A buck, 

 or male hare, is known by its choosing to run 

 upon hard highways, feeding farther from the 

 wood sides, and making its doublings of a greater 

 compass than the female. The male having made 

 a turn or two about its form, frequently leads 

 the hounds five or six miles on a stretch ; but the 

 female keeps close by some covert side, turns, 

 crosses, and winds among the bushes like a rabbit, 

 and seldom runs directly forward. In general, 

 however, both male and female regulate their 

 conduct according to the weather. In a moist 

 day they hold by the highways more than at any 

 other time, because the scent is then strongest 

 upon the grass. If they come to the side of a 

 grove or spring, they forbear to enter, but squat 

 down by the side thereof, until the hounds have 

 overshot them ; and then, turning along their 

 former path, make to their old form, from which 

 they vainly hope for protection. 



Hares are divided, by the hunters, into moun- 

 tain and measled hares. The former are more 

 swift, vigorous, and have their flesh better tasted ; 

 the latter chiefly frequent the marshes, when 

 hunted keep among low grounds, and their flesh 

 is moist, white, and flabby. When the male and 

 female keep one particular spot, they will not 

 suffer any strange hare to make its form in the 

 same quarter ; so that it is usually said, that the 

 more you hunt, the more hares you shall have ; 

 for, having killed one hare, others come and take 

 possession of its form. Many of these animals 

 are found to live in woods and thickets ; but they 



