NATURAL HISTORY OF \THE HARE 



individual of either species may actually overlap each 

 other.' ' 



Mr. Barrett Hamilton measured the successive 

 leaps of an Irish hare while chased by a dachshund, 

 and found them to consist of the following distances 

 measured in inches : — 90, 46, 90, 45, 86, 42, 62, 44, 

 86, 47, 60, 120. 'The snow being hard and frozen at 

 the top, the animal did not sink into it, but left two 

 slight but clearly recognisable footmarks on its surface 

 after each leap. The measurements were made from 

 one p>air of marks on the snow to the next pair, and 

 not, as in the following measurements, from one 

 mark made by a hind foot to the next made by a 

 hind foot. They are rough, but are probably accurate 

 to within an inch or two. The largest leap, ten feet, 

 will compare very favourably with the measurements 

 given by Dr. Shufeldt of the leaps of the American 

 hare, which he describes as a " big hare," and therefore 

 likely to make a longer leap than our own. Probably 

 the hare whose leap I measured would have added 

 another foot to her best efforts if she had had a brace 

 of greyhounds at her heels. I found that the length 

 of the leaps taken by a hare, when merely wandering 

 about, was close on thirty inches from the mark made 

 by one hind foot to the next one made by that foot, or 



' Zoologist, [888i p. 259. 



