THE HARE AND HER TROD 79 



i.e. the track which the animal is accustomed to 

 traverse in visiting and returning from its feeding 

 grounds. If she is chased or terrilied, the creature 

 flies in whatever direction she thinks safety may be 

 found ; but so long as she is left at liberty undisturbed 

 to nibble the tender shoots of clover at her will, she 

 ambles playfully along the favourite v;inds that lie 

 half hidden in the labyrinths of long grass. If you 

 watch the rambles of a hare, I think you will find 

 that she ' runs all roads,' as one of the poachers 

 expresses it. A rabbit on the other hand generally 

 runs straight. Of course a tiro would be unable to 

 distinguish the ' trod ' or path of a hare from that of 

 a rabbit. Not so the poacher. He is rarely deceived, 

 for he is a specialist and his skilled eye instantly 

 distinguishes the run of a hare, because it is larger 

 and broader than that of a rabbit. But he is not 

 content to know where the hare runs. If he means to 

 ' riddle the fields,' he searches all round the hedges 

 and dykes to find the hare's bolt-hole, or ' smout,' as 

 it is called in the North of England. Rabbits jump 

 over obstacles. Hares try to find a way through them 

 or under them. Of course hares can jump beautifully, 

 but their habit is to seek a bolt-hole ; so the hare's 

 ' smout ' may lead under a gate or through a dyke, it 

 makes no difference to the poacher. He wishes to 



