206 FACULTIES OF BIRDS. 



would hence appear that the ancient Greeks errone- 

 ously undervalued the skill of the hedge-hog, when, 

 comparing- it with the polysophia of the fox, they said 

 it only knew the important art of defence*. 



The hare, which remains active all winter, is 

 somewhat less provident against cold, its close fur, 

 particularly upon the feet, furnishing it with good pro- 

 tection; and yet the winter form, as it is called, or den 

 of the hare, is a very snug little place. We had once 

 occasion to cross the wild mountainous tract on the 

 north-east boundary of Ayrshire, after a heavy fall of 

 snow, which a subsequent frost had hardened on the 

 surface into a crust sufficient to bear the foot without 

 sinking. For several miles we did not see a living 

 creature, and even the hardy raven, that might have 

 fared sumptuously on the hapless sheep, many of 

 which had fallen victims to the weather, seemed to 

 have abandoned its summer haunts for the warmer 

 vicinity, perhaps, of the sea-coast. On crossing a 

 small holm by the side of a brook, the water of which 

 we could hear running, though it was mantled over 

 with snow and invisible, we were not a little startled 

 alarmed indeed by a hare dashing through between 

 our legs and almost upsetting us, and we found we had 

 actually stepped over her form before she was roused t- 

 The ancients had a notion that the hare sleeps with 

 its eyes openj, and hence, Horus Apollo says, the 

 Egyptians pictured a sleeping hare as the hieroglyphic 

 of what was obvious. " The Greeks,'* says Gesner, 

 " had a common proverb (Aayos- xaQcvcov), * a sleeping 

 hare,' for a dissembler or counterfeit, because the hare 

 sees when she sleeps ; for this is an admirable and 

 rare work of nature, that all the residue of her bodily 

 parts take their rest, but the eye standeth continually 



* rioX' o?S' uXuTf^ aXX* l%7vtf tv ptyu. Zenodotus ex 

 Archiloch. 



t J. R. J Gesner, Hist, Anim, by Toplis, p, 208. 



