Varying Here 
face of the snow in order to get at the twigs and buds that 
grow beyond their reach. But it never seems to occur to them 
to carry any of it away to the cover of the evergreens where 
they sleep, and in consequence they are obliged to be abroad in 
all kinds of weather or go hungry until the storm is over. 
They usually pass the day crouching motionless, half asleep 
in the shadow, though not averse to sunning themselves at mid- 
day, especially during the latter part of the winter. 
Toward sunset they start out in search of food and are back 
in their forms again soon after sunrise, but whether they spend 
the entire night in feeding or only the hours of twilight is 
not easy to determine; I am inclined to think that they are abroad 
more or less at all hours of the night, especially when there is 
moonlight or in the winter when it seldom gets very dark, and 
as they appear to depend at all times much more upon their 
other senses than upon their eyesight they would hardly be in- 
commoded by the most intense darkness, and it is hard to imagine 
anything much blacker than the darkness beneath the hemlocks 
on a summer evening, even while it is still twilight in the open 
fields. 
In spite of its size and the great strength of its hind legs 
which it uses so vigorously as a final defence, kicking and strik- 
ing savagely when seized, the Northern hare seems to be preyed 
upon ‘by all but the very smallest flesh-eating inhabitants of the 
woods; in the North the sable is said to be one of its worst 
enemies, and it is not at all unlikely that the mink in some of. 
his upland hunts manages now and again to seize one either by 
stratagem or speed; for in spite of their short legs most of the 
weasel tribe, of which the mink is a member, are able to beat 
the hares at their own game, and although the latter have a 
decided advantage at the start and quickly outdistance their 
pursuers, the tireless muscles of the long-bodied hunters are pretty 
sure to enable them to have their own way in the end. 
Even the ermine and little weasel have been known to kill 
full-grown hares, and though these cases are probably not very 
frequent, they must find the young and half-grown ones the easiest 
kind of victims. 
Foxes are perhaps their most dangerous and persistent enemies, 
and from what I have seen I am inclined to think that our Ameri- 
cat fexes work in concert when hunting them just as the English 
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