114 WILD LIFE AT HOME. 



frequently traced hares from their feeding-ground, 

 which they visited every night, at the bottom of 

 a Yorkshire dale, to the peat-hags on the hill-tops 

 a distance of over two miles away, where they 

 rested during the day. When hares are going to 

 seek their day or sleeping quarters, they practise 

 a very ingenious trick in order to mislead and baffle 

 their enemies. This consists of travelling for some 

 distance in a direction they have no intention of 

 pursuing, and then doubling back exactly along 

 their own track for a good way, and suddenly 

 leaving it by making a tremendous sideward bound 

 to right or left. This being accomplished to their 

 satisfaction, they trot off' at right angles to the 

 path they have just left, and go to their forms. 

 Occasionally a very cautious animal will repeat 

 the trick once or twice the same night before going 

 to rest, and when but a light sprinkling of snow is 

 lying upon the ground, or places have been swept 

 bare by the wind, the "double" is very puzzling. 

 I have always found the best way to pick up the 

 track again is by making a circle of sixty or eighty 

 yards round the place where I lost it. 



Hares are very fond of old haunts, from which 

 they can hardly be driven for any length of time 

 by the most persistent persecution, but they do not 

 like ground infested by rabbits. They have a 

 curious habit when hunted by hounds of returning, 

 sometimes after a very long chase, to die close to 

 the form from which they were disturbed. I once 



