NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE 



instead of getting away through the gateway, which 

 was entirely open in every way. When we passed 

 through the gateway, and had gone but ten or twelve 

 yards, my brother put his foot almost on another 

 hare, and when she went away killed her. He then 

 found that his foot was resting on three leverets not 

 bigger than rats, and it was evident that the first 

 hare, being the jack, had shirked the gateway so as 

 not to run over the doe in her form. We had dogs 

 with us, but they did not chase, although probably 

 the hare might have expected they would. I 

 may add that, so far as we could see, there was no 

 other means of exit from the first close but the gate- 

 way, it being surrounded, except in that one place, 

 with an unusually high fence and ditch on either 

 side.' ' 



Apropos of leverets, I may remark that the hare 

 makes a very delightful pet, provided it be captured 

 young and treated with judicious kindness. Every- 

 one knows the story of the poet Cowper's hares, but 

 they were in no sense singular. Many hares had been 

 domesticated before Cowper tamed his pets, the 

 results varying according to the disposition of the 

 individual animal, and the respective pains bestowed 

 upon its education. Some years ago my friends 



' Zoologist ^ 1883, p. 75. 



