ENGLISH ANIMALS IN SNO W 203 



shifts to find food and escape their enemies. The more 

 open and exposed the districts, the greater their diffi- 

 cult ies. Where there are thick woods and hedgerows, 

 and, above all> running water, birds and beasts alike can 

 find dry earth in which to peck and scratch, or green 

 things to nibble, and water to drink. But on the 

 great chalk-downs, a heavy snow-storm seems to drive 

 from the open country every living creature that dares 

 to move at all. For the first day after a heavy fall, 

 the hares, which allow the snow to cover them, all but 

 a tiny hole made by their warm breath, do not stir. 

 Only towards noon, if the sun shines out, they make a 

 small opening to face its beams, and perhaps another in 

 the afternoon, at a different angle to the surface, to 

 catch the last slanting rays. Walking across the fields 

 after a violent snow-storm in January, the writer stepped 

 on a hare, though the field showed one level stretch of 

 driven snow ; and later in the day, from the brow of a 

 steep, narrow valley, the sun-holes made by the hares 

 were easily marked on the opposite ridge. Four or 

 five were discovered in this way ; and on disturbing 

 them, it was found that each had its two windows, 

 one facing the south, the second and longer tunnel 

 pointing further to the west, and at a sharper angle to 

 the surface. But hunger soon forces the hares to leave 

 their snug snow-house ; in the bitter nights, as the, icy 

 wind sweeps through the thin beech-copses on the 

 downs, and piles up huge ice-puddings of drifted snow 

 and beech- leaves, they canter off down into the vale, 

 to eat the cabbages in the cottage-gardens, and nibble 



