52 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE 



rare. I doubt whether they ever killed many brown 

 hares, even when they were numerous. The worst 

 enemies of the hare are sheepdogs and half-wild 

 cats. Tliere is no more destructive animal to game 

 than your house cat which has abandoned civilised 

 habits and become a proscribed outlaw. You will 

 not see her during the day, unless by accident. She 

 is cunning enough to lie up in a big rabbit earth all 

 day long. It is in the small hours of the night that 

 she plays havoc with young leverets and other game. 

 Sheepdogs are often self-willed and love to run down 

 half-grown leverets. But two-footed poachers are the 

 most dangerous enemies that the hare has to face. 

 The desire to kill something exists in the mind of the 

 civilised man no less than in that of the savage. 



The first Napoleon inherited in its crudest form 

 the craving to destroy life. Although he was an in- 

 different shot, he used to shoot out of his window at 

 the tame storks and swans which the Empress kept 

 as pets, solely because he wanted to kill something. 



Another substantial incitement to persecution 

 may be found in the fact that game of any kind 

 always commands a certain monetary consideration. 

 ' They have a proverb among them in Suffolk,' says 

 Willughby : 'A Curlew, be she white or black, she 

 carries twelve pence on her back.' 



