NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Curious doubles, stratagems, See. 



dog also pursues it by instinct; and man, more 

 formidable than these, employs every artifice to 

 seize upon an animal which constitutes one of the 

 delicacies of his table. It is sometimes killed by 

 hawking, and the Iceland hawk is employed for 

 this purpose; but it is a most refined cruelty; as 

 the hare is so sensible of her enemy's superiority, 

 that she would not stir, were she not impelled by 

 a slow greyhound to keep upon her legs, till the 

 hawk at length makes her his victim. 



The Druids, and the Britons of the early cen- 

 turies, supposed it impious to eat the flesh of 

 these animals : the Romans, however, deemed it 

 a delicious dish ; and it is, at present, generally 

 esteemed by Europeans, on account of its pecu- 

 liar flavour. 



The frequent doubles which the hare artfully 

 makes when started and hunted, are equally sur- 

 prising and curious; and the various stratagems 

 employed to elude the enemy show a wonderful 

 degree of instinct and sagacity. When one of 

 these animals has been chased for a considerable 

 length of time, she will sometimes push another 

 from its seat, and lie down there herself. When 

 hard pressed, she will mingle with a flock of 

 sheep, run up an old wall and conceal herself 

 among the grass on the top of it, or cross a river 

 several times at small distances. Fouilloux as- 

 serts, that he has seen a hare start from its form 

 at the sound of the hunter's horn, run toward a 

 pool of water at a considerable distance, plunge 



