Hares in the Cornfield 



There are holes on the hills, not above a yard deep, 

 and entering the slope horizontally, which are said to be 

 used by the hares more in a playful mood than from any 

 real desire of shelter. Yet they dislike wet ; most wild 

 animals do. Birds, on the contrary, find it answer their 

 purpose, grubs and worms abounding at such times. 

 Though the hare is of a wandering disposition he usually 

 returns to the same form, and, if undisturbed, will use it 

 every day for a length of time, at night perhaps being 

 miles away. If hard pressed by the dogs he will leap a 

 broad brook in fine style, but he usually prefers to cross 

 by a bridge. In the evening, as it grows dusk, if you 

 watch from the elevation of the entrenchment, you may 

 see these creatures steal out into the level cornfield below, 

 first one, then two, presently five or six looming much 

 larger than they really are in the dusk, and seeming to 

 appear upon the scene suddenly. They have a trick of 

 stealing along close to the low mounds which divide arable 

 fields, so that they are unobserved till they turn out into 

 the open ground. 



It is not easy to distinguish a hare when crouching in 

 a ploughed field, his colour harmonises so well with the 

 clods; so that an unpractised eye generally fails to note 

 him. An old hand with the gun cannot pass a field with- 

 out involuntarily glancing along the furrows made by the 

 plough to see if their regular grooves are broken by any- 

 thing hiding therein. The ploughmen usually take 

 special care with their work near public roads, so that the 

 furrows end on to the base of the highway shall be 

 mathematically straight. They often succeed so well that 

 the furrows look as if traced with a ruler, and exhibit 

 curious effects of vanishing perspective. Along the furrow, 

 just as it is turned, there runs a shimmering light as the 



