106 HAMPSHIRE DAYS 



clear that he fascinates to use the convenient old 

 word in two different ways, or that his furred and 

 feathered victims are differently affected. In the case 

 of the rabbits and of the small rodents, we see that they 

 recognise the dangerous character of their pursuer and 

 try their best to escape from him, but that they cannot 

 attain their normal speed they cannot run as they do 

 from a man, or dog, or other enemy, or as they run 

 ordinarily when chasing one another. Yet it is plain to 

 any one who has watched a rabbit followed by a stoat 

 that they strain every nerve to escape, and, conscious 

 of their weakness, are on the brink of .despair and ready 

 to collapse. The rabbit's appearance when he is being 

 followed, even when his foe is at a distance behind, 

 his trembling frame, little hopping movements, and 

 agonising cries, which may be heard distinctly three 

 or four hundred yards away, remind us of our own 

 state in a bad dream, when some terrible enemy, or 

 some nameless horror, is coming swiftly upon us ; when 

 we must put forth our utmost speed to escape instant 

 destruction, yet have a leaden weight on our limbs 

 that prevents us from moving. 



I have often watched rabbits hunted by stoats, and 

 recently, at Beaulieu, I watched a vole hunted by a 

 weasel, and it was simply the stoat and rabbit hunt in 

 little. 



It is a typical case, and I will describe just what I 

 saw, and saw very well. I was on the hard, white 

 road between Beaulieu village and Hilltop, when the 



