Varying Hare 
venture forth and hop away to the nearest regular path or road- 
way used in common by all the hares in the vicinity. These 
paths are usually pretty straight and follow the same course the 
year round, often extending in an interrupted sort of way for a quarter 
of a mile or more with numerous side paths or cross roads of less 
extent, leading off in the direction of their feeding grounds. After 
following them for a little distance the hares usually strike off at 
random into the undergrowth, nibbling and browsing here and 
there and nosing about for vagrant leaves of grass and clover 
such as spring up at intervals even in the darkest forests. 
Throughout the warmer months they have a large and varied 
assortment of herbs to choose from, and it seems not wholly 
improbable that they should also feed occasionally on berries and 
mushrooms. 
The young hares from the very first are provided with no 
more adequate shelter than that furnished by the leaves above 
them, and evidently must be left quite unprotected as often as 
their mother is obliged to find food for herself, as the old males 
are said not only to exhibit no feeling of responsibility in the 
matter of bringing up their offsprings, but even to kill them 
wantonly whenever the opportunity offers. 
As soon as they are able to take care of themselves, or even 
before, judging from outward appearances, the young ones are 
turned adrift to support themselves as best they may. The matter 
of finding food at that season is easy enough, but to avoid the 
numerous enemies that beset them must be much more difficult 
and I doubt if one out of a dozen ever attains its growth. 
As winter approaches and the frosts cut off their supply of 
food, they find themselves compelled to depend more and more 
upon the bark of young trees and bushes, birch and soft maple 
and wild apple trees. 
When the buds of the gray birch begin to swell, as they 
do late in the winter, the hares seem to prefer them to all other 
food and often wander considerable distances in search of trees 
with low growing branches, or clusters of young trees of last 
season’s growth whose tops are still within their reach; and a 
hare standing erect on its hind feet, as is their habit at such 
times, is able to reach much higher than might at first be supposed. 
The tall stalks of the blackberry and young trees a half inch 
or less in diameter they cut off close to the ground or the sur- 
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