244 GNAWING ANIMALS 



hand, or even having his eyes torn out. The best known 

 'game' are pheasants, partridges, grouse, and Hares. A 

 Hare may only be killed during certain months by a 

 licensed sportsman, and it can only be sold by a licensed 

 dealer. 



The Hare often contributes to sport in other ways. 

 When hunted by hounds, though the animal is really 

 speedier than the fox, it does not display such good 

 generalship, usually exhausting itself in its earlier efforts ; 

 but it frequently displays considerable cunning. It will 

 take refuge in a sheep-fold and hide among the sheep ; 

 it will run up one side of a hedge and down the other ; 

 it will swim a stream ; and it has been known to gain the 

 top of a newly cut hedge and then to run along it for a 

 considerable distance to throw its pursuers effectually off 

 the scent. 



The Hare has many enemies. No dog with the sense 

 of smell can resist the desire to track it ; the weasel tribe 

 are ever on the watch for it ; and birds of prey and 

 snakes leave it no peace. Man always hunts it assidu- 

 ously. It is a wonder that the creature can contrive to 

 exist in any numbers: and but that the female produces 

 several litters in the course of the year and that the 

 animal is so strictly preserved, the Hare would become 

 exceedingly scarce in Britain. The fecundity of the animal 

 has been tested by placing a male and two females in 

 a walled enclosure. At the end of twelve months there 

 were no less than forty-seven animals awaiting their 

 freedom. Out in the open the net result would have 

 been far less, for these particular animals were freed 

 from the attentions of their natural foes. Young Hares, 

 which are called ' leverets,' are born clothed and with their 

 eyes open. 



The flesh of the Hare, which is dark in colour, is 

 greatly esteemed in most countries, but it was a for- 

 bidden animal to the Jews and Mahometans. The 

 Mosaic law included it among the unclean animals 

 ' because he cheweth the cud, but divideth not the hoof.' 

 The Hare has neither the teeth nor the stomach of a 

 ruminant ; but in early times it was supposed to chew 



