176 ROUND THE GREAT WHITE HORSE 



or clods, begin to move. The distant ones look redder 

 and larger. Presently one rises, not at once, but 

 gradually, till its round back shows against the down. 

 It creeps forward and nibbles at the grass, and at last 

 hops gently, down the slope. The rest take courage, 

 and rise one by one ; others appear in unexpected 

 quarters, until the hillside is dotted with their cautiously 

 moving forms. One, bolder than the rest, dashes up 

 to its mate, and before long the whole party are busy 

 courting, the lady hares nibbling at the young grass, 

 taking little excursions to try another tuft, sitting up to 

 watch the landscape, and pretending to be quite absorbed 

 in the weather, or in anything but the affairs of the 

 moment, while their suitors skip, run circles, or hop 

 meekly after them, protesting that they have come 

 miles to see them across the downs, and cannot take 

 " No " for an answer. Some are already mated ; but 

 few of the young March leverets survive the dangers to 

 which the short herbage and long light days expose 

 them. The hungry sparrow-hawks, whose keen vision 

 sees the tiny leveret far more quickly than the most 

 practised human eye detects a bold March hare, must 

 kill the greater number of these " rathe-born " litters. 

 They seem to know the exact spots where the leverets 

 are lying, and not to take them until such time as they 

 consider to be necessary or convenient. While watching 

 the hares at play and at the same time the progress of 

 the horse-drills in a field in which spring corn was 

 being sown, the writer observed a sparrow-hawk 

 perched upon a tree, and also watching the progress of 



