CHAPTER I 



STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 



The common brown hare has long been associated 

 with the happiest traditions of Enghsh sport. Its 

 presence on the countryside has served to draw all 

 classes together, and contributed in no small degree 

 to the maintenance of mutual sympathies. Nor is 

 this true of British sportsmen alone. No doubt 

 Englishmen are the sportsmen of the world, but our 

 Continental neighbours entertain a friendly rivalry 

 with the Saxon, and the number of hares which 

 are annually killed at big drives in Austria represent 

 enormous figures, beside which statistics of our 

 English sport are d\\-arfed into sorry insignificance. 

 The question naturally arises, To what countries is the 

 brown hare really indigenous ? It is not a native of 

 Ireland. The fact is a little surprising at first sight, 

 but appears less astonishing when we remember how 

 deficient that island is in mammalian Kfe. Elsewhere 



B 3 



