44 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



existence, we cannot but wonder at the excellence of 

 arrangements that provides for wants which mere 

 human ingenuity can only comprehend, but could 

 never supply. 



" From this tube being placed very forward, we 

 should naturally conclude that this animal's sense of 

 hearing is necessarily much less acute from behind 

 than before. This supposition I am inclined strongly 

 to support from the following circumstance : A farmer 

 in the neighbourhood had his poultry disturbed on 

 several successive nights, but could not make out the 

 case till one day he discovered near his residence a 

 couple of these vermin gamboling in a very frolicsome 

 manner. Without disturbing them, he returned has- 

 tily to his house, got his gun loaded, and then went 

 back to look for his visitors. Approaching them 

 cautiously from behind, he was enabled to come 

 within a very few yards of them He levelled his gun, 

 but it missed fire. This occurred five or six times 

 without a single spark being elicited from his flint ; 

 and notwithstanding all this hammering in their rear, 

 the animals never were in the least alarmed. Fortune, 

 however, at last favoured him, and he was enabled to 

 obtain one of them ; but the other made its escape. 



" I was much puzzled with his recital of the cir- 

 cumstance ; and could not in any manner satisfactorily 

 account for it, till I examined its skull minutely (having 

 obtained it for a skeleton), and then discovered its 

 auditory canal situated in the position before men- 

 tioned. 



" This investigation satisfied my mind that though 

 this animal may hear sounds behind it, yet they are 

 only heard imperfectly ; otherwise it must have taken 

 alarm at the many attempts to fire the gun. Applying 

 this analogy to the hare, we may suppose that this 

 animal, whose external tube is placed backward, would 

 not distinguish sounds very distinctly in front of 



