PAGES OF HARE LORE 41 



But hares have many perils to face on land as 

 well as sea. It may be doubted whether the majority 

 of sportsmen have obtained a correct conception of 

 the quantity of game that annually perishes upon the 

 railway lines which nowadays cut up many of the 

 finest sporting estates in this country. All sorts of 

 animals succumb by accident to the resources of 

 civilisation. I have known a fine old dog otter to 

 stray upon the metals, with fatal results. Water- 

 rats are great sufferers, nor is this difficult to under- 

 stand, since they inhabit the ditches upon both sides 

 of the railway track, and often scuttle across the 

 sleepers. In the neighbourhood of towns it is the 

 domestic cat which perishes oftenest on the railway. 

 Out in the open country hares and rabbits may be 

 said to ' ring the changes.' It must not be supposed 

 that feathered game is more fortunate than furred. 

 Pheasants and partridges often strike the engines ; 

 red grouse and black game meet with the .same fate. 

 Only the other day a railway man brought to me a 

 delicately mottled nightjar, which had incontinently 

 charged the engine of a passenger train, and that 

 in broad daylight. But hares and rabbits are most 

 to the tastes of railway officials. The drivers and 

 firemen of goods trains have generally the best 

 chance of annexing the game which perishes on the 



