STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 19 



than two leverets are produced at a birth, one of them 

 is always marked with a spot or stripe of white in the 

 forehead, I examined those I found, and one of them 

 was distinctly so marked.' ' 



Shy and timid as the hare must undoubtedly be 

 admitted to be in the generality of cases, yet when 

 her young are in danger she will willingly show a de- 

 termined defence, and fight pluckily in their behalf. 

 A notable instance of this was reported by Mr. John 

 Wilkes :— 



'On September 13,' writes this observer, 'as I sat 

 in my rough-built straw hut waiting to shoot wood- 

 pigeons in the fast fading twilight, all at once I was 

 startled by the cry of a leveret among the nettles and 

 long grass not many yards distant. Springing to my 

 feet, I ran with my spaniel to the spot, where I had 

 but just time to see a weasel run from the leveret, 

 and disappear among the long grass and nettles, 

 where my spaniel failed to catch it ; but I had hardly 

 time to pick up the little thing, which had blood 

 flowing from behind its ears, before a full-grown hare 

 came rushing through the copse, and dashed up to 

 within two yards of me and my excited spaniel (which 

 was beating round me after the weasel), and ran 

 round us snorting in defiance, and every time the 



' FieU, Sept. 28, 1878. 



