TOUCH. 207 



sentinel *." The hare in question, however, must have 

 been in a profounder sleep than usual, tempted 

 perhaps by the supposed security of its retreat in this 

 almost untrodden wilderness. Upon examining the 

 form, we found it as neatly rounded as a bird's nest, 

 and of considerable depth, the foundation being- a thick 

 tussock of withered rush ( Juncus maximus) well lined 

 with bent, not carried thither, it would appear, but 

 grown upon the spot, and only beat down and arranged 

 into a snug, circular, basket-like cavity, just sufficient 

 to contain the little animal when coiled up to sleep. 

 We could not ascertain whether it had been quite open 

 above, or partly covered with bent and rushes, and 

 curtained with snow ; but we think the latter most 

 probable, for had there been a speck of darker colour 

 than the uniform white surface around us, before we 

 came to the spot, we could scarcely have failed to 

 observe it. If such a covering, however, had existed, 

 it must have been destroyed at the exit of the hare. 



White of Selborne, in describing the severe season 

 of 1776, still remembered in popular chronology as 

 the Frosty Harvest, says, "The hares lay sullenly 

 in their seats, and would not move till compelled by 

 hunger ; being conscious, poor animals, that the 

 drifts and heaps treacherously betray their footsteps 

 and prove fatalf." It is by no means unlikely that 

 this was the case with the hare which we started ; for 

 we could perceive no footprints to or from her little 

 nest ; but if she did move out to forage, she must 

 have gone at least a couple of miles to the nearest 

 farm-yard, at Whitehall gh, where she had every 

 chance to be shot while tasting the rip of corn 

 usually hung out about the hedges for this purpose; 

 in which way, indeed, we had seen one killed the 

 previous night at Waterhead farm. It may be 

 true, as the older authors affirm, that hares never 

 Ibid, p, 209, f Nat, Hist, of Selborne, Let, 10. 



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