CHAPTER II 



OF THE HARE AND OF HER NATURE 



The hare is a common beast enough, and there- 

 fore I need not tell of her making, for there be 

 few men that have not seen some of them. They 

 live on corn, and on weeds growing on waste land, 

 on leaves, on herbs, on the bark of trees, on 

 grapes and on many other fruits. The hare is a 

 good little beast, and much good sport and liking 

 is the hunting of her, more than that of any other 

 beast that any man knoweth, if he 1 were not so 

 little. And that for five reasons : the one is, for 

 her hunting lasteth all the year as with running 

 hounds without any sparing, and this is not with 

 all the other beasts. And also men may hunt at 

 her both in the morning and in the evening. In 

 the eventide, when they be relieved, 2 and in the 

 morning, when they sit in form. And of all 



1 The hare was frequently spoken of in two genders in the 

 same sentence, for it was an old belief that the hare was at 

 one time male, and at another female. See Appendix : Hare. 



2 Means here : when the hare has arisen from her form to 

 go to her feeding. Fr. relever. G. de F. explains, p. 42 : 

 un lièvre se relieve pour aler à son vianders. Relief, which 

 denoted the act of arising and going to feed, became afterwards 

 the term for the feeding itself. "A hare hath greater scent 



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