MAMMALS 



are of the greatest use to less favoured locali- 

 ties. 



Hares do not average so large in Bucks (or 

 in the south of the county at all events) as in 

 some other parts of the country the Berk- 

 shire downs for instance. Few leverets are 

 born between August and Christmas, though 

 a doe hare in my possession at the time of 

 writing was picked up by me when a field of 

 wheat was being cut here on 8 September, 

 which was at that date so small that she 

 could sit easily on my hand, and had to be 

 fed for some time on milk with a teaspoon. 

 In January many leverets make their appear- 

 ance ; e.g. a doe shot here on the 1 7th of that 

 month contained a single foetus within two 

 or three days of birth, and in most years 

 those does that are not already in young take 

 the jack during the month with probably 

 very few exceptions. On 7 May, in a mea- 

 dow near here, I saw eight hares in company 

 going through a most interesting and divert- 

 ing performance closely resembling a 'musical 

 ride ' > by troopers at a military tournament. 

 Probably seven of these were jacks, all court- 

 ing a single doe. The individual already 

 mentioned is the only specimen of this species 

 that I have kept in captivity ; she was a 

 most engaging and delightful animal as a pet 

 while small, but as she grew she seemed to 

 adopt ' Excelsior ' as her motto, and rode her 

 hobby to an extent I could not endure for 

 long. When let out of her box in the room, 

 after she had grown to about a third of her 

 full size, she would constantly sit and gaze 

 upwards to the tops of all the higher pieces 

 of furniture, and with considerable ingenuity 

 in taking advantage of any projections, she 

 quickly achieved the ascent of one piece after 

 another, and I was speedily obliged for the 

 sake of the various ornaments and knick- 

 knacks, independently of the ink-stand, to 

 banish the amusing and playful little sinner 

 to an out-door cage. Whether this habit 

 was an idiosyncrasy of this particular indi- 

 vidual or whether Cowper and the other hare 

 fanciers had no ink-stand or breakable orna- 

 ments, I do not know. Certainly however 

 to any one who lives without these amenities, 

 I can recommend a hare as the most charm- 

 ing pet possible. She found by experiment 

 that one particular door (of four) of a large 

 bird-skin cabinet was specially resonant, and 

 she delighted to drum on it with her fore feet 

 for long and frequent spells. For an interest- 

 ing and amusing account of a tame hare, I 

 would recommend any one interested to read 

 a paper by Mr. R. Deane, F.L.S., in the 

 Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists' Society, 

 xxvii. pt. ii. 1894-5. I venture to offer a 



suggestion as to the preparation of hares for 

 the table. Contrary to the accepted custom, 

 draw as soon as possible after death, including 

 in this removal the liver, which allows the 

 blood to run. Then hang the hare by the 

 chin instead of the hind legs, which promotes 

 the drainage of the blood, and the result is 

 something distantly approaching the highly es- 

 teemed ' hunted hare.' 



[Mountain or Blue Hare. Lepus timidus, 

 Linn. 



The blue hare has never existed as an in- 

 digenous animal so far to the south as Bucks ; 

 at any rate within historic times.] 



30. Rabbit. Lepus cunicu/us, Linn. 



Bucks contains no great rabbit-warren or 

 preserve on so large a scale as some other 

 counties, but rabbits are nevertheless ubiqui- 

 tous and very common ; and in some parks 

 and other places the ground is literally honey- 

 combed by them. Rabbits, like probably 

 every kind of herbivorous animal, vary in 

 size according to the locality they come from ; 

 the chemical properties of the soil producing 

 varying degrees of nutriment in the herbage 

 of which their food consists. All about the 

 parish of Great Marlow in which I lived un- 

 til recently, rabbits were small. Tame rab- 

 bits breed during the greater part of the year, 

 but cease to do so during the winter months ; 

 but with the wild rabbit the case appears to 

 be different. When shooting in September 

 one constantly sees little rabbits which have 

 but lately emerged from the nest, but few 

 does at that time contain foetuses ; later in 

 the season however, during December and 

 especially January (in most years) almost 

 every doe rabbit is heavy in young. Five 

 seems to be the most usual number for a litter, 

 then four ; and nine is the largest number I 

 have met with. Tame rabbits produce of 

 course much larger litters. The intestines of 

 rabbits are largely infested with tape-worms ; 

 and besides these, scolices of a different 

 species are almost invariably present on the 

 rectum, and generally on the mesentery as 

 well. These are rounded gelatinous bodies, 

 rather smaller than a dried pea. Sometimes 

 they are present in clusters to the number of 

 thirty or even more, while it is exceptional to 

 find an adult rabbit that does not harbour at 

 least two or three. Rabbits frequently also 

 harbour small flukes (Distoma). In the 

 autumn they are sometimes half covered by 

 harvest-bugs. 



Mrs. Raikes of Chandos Villa, Bucking- 

 ham, informs me (in litt. 9 May 1903) that 

 there are in that neighbourhood (apparently 



171 



