STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 



well together. The smaller animal defiles the hare's 

 pasturage, for the hare is a fastidious feeder, and will 

 not willingly feed where rabbits have been. The 

 rabbit is as audacious as it is erotic, and has no fear 

 of the hare, which it often bullies and hounds off its 

 favourite grounds. I feel little or no doubt that 

 in some cases the disappearance of the hare is due 

 to the hostility of the rabbit. 



Another and more important condition to be con- 

 sidered in determining the number of hares is the 

 presence or absence of disease. I have not found 

 the brown hare to be as susceptible either to wet 

 or to diseases born of hunger as the rabbit un- 

 doubtedly is. Certainly rumours of English hares 

 dying from lung disease reached me from an estate in 

 the North of England a few years ago ; but I had no 

 opportunity of ascertaining whether the complaint was 

 well founded or not. That the hare is peculiarly liable 

 to a species of consumption, however, there can be no 

 doubt, because it has been proved up to the hilt. 

 Thus, in the autumn of 1882, a great many hares died 

 in the district of Eisvold, in Norway. The cause of 

 the deaths of these animals was inquired into by Pro- 

 fessor Heiberg, of Christiania. His researches resulted 

 in the discovery that the air passages and pulmonary 

 substance of the deceased animals were charged with 



