OF NATURAL HISTORY. 407 



parents and the young go together, and never mingle with 

 ftrangers. They are conftant in their amours, and never 

 unfaithful like the flag. The females commonly produce 

 two fawns, the one a male and the other a female. Thefe 

 young animals, who are brought up and nouriftied together, 

 acquire a mutual affection fo ftrong, that they never depart 

 from each other. This attachment is fomething more than 

 love ; for, though always in comf^any, they feel the rut but 

 once a year, and it continues only fifteen days. At this pe- 

 riod the father drives ofF the fawns, as if he intended that 

 they fliould yield their place to thofe which are to fucceed, 

 in order to form new families for themfelves. After the 

 rutting feafon, however, is paft, the fawns return to their 

 mother, and continue with her fome time longer j after 

 which they feparate forever, and remove to a diftance from 

 the place of their nativity. When about to bring forth, the 

 female feparates from the male ; and, to avoid the wolf, her 

 moft dangerous enemy, conceals herfelf in the deepeft re- 

 ceiTes of the foreft. In a week or two the fawns are able to 

 follow her. "When threatened with danger, flie hides them 

 in a clofe thicket ; and, fo ftrong is her parental affe<5tion, 

 that, in order to preferve her offspring from deitru<5lion, (he 

 prefents herfelf to be chafed. 



Hares polTefs not, like rabbits, the art of digging retreats 

 in the earth. But they neither want inftinct fufficient for 

 their own prefervation, nor fagacity for efcaping their ene^ 

 mies. They form feats or nefls on the furfa.ce of the ground, 

 where they watch, with the moft vigilant attention, the ap- 

 proach of any danger. In order to deceive, they conceal them- 

 felves between clods of the fame colour with that of their 

 own hair. When purfued, they firfl run with rapidity, and 

 then double, or return upon their former fteps. From the 

 place of ftarting, the females run not fo far as the males ; 

 but they double more frequently. Hares hunted in the place 



