GROUND GAME. 173 



shoots and gnawing the bark of poles and trees. But they are 

 seldom found together, as hares shun rabbit -infested places. 

 And being far fewer in number than the prolific burrowing 

 rabbit, hares are more easily kept down, though individually 

 the hare, being larger, does more damage than a rabbit, and 

 often apparently bites off leading-shoots in young plantations 

 from mere wantonness, leaving them lying on the ground. 



It is easy to distinguish between the teeth-marks of hares and 

 rabbits, the marks left by hares being longer, broader, and fewer 

 than those of rabbits, which are shorter, narrower, and usually 

 in two to six more or less parallel grooves, but are larger, 

 broader, and less numerous than the finely-chiselled teeth-marks 

 of mice and moles. Hares (Lepus timidus) chiefly gnaw Ash, 

 Maple, and Sycamore, Beech, Elm, Hazel, and Robinia (also 

 orchard-trees), but the damage is less concentrated than that o 

 rabbits. In the Scottish Highlands the blue hare (L. variabilis] 

 may during winter commit serious damage in young plantations 

 not protected by wire-netting. Rabbits (Lepus cuniculus) often 

 ruin Hazel- and Ash-coppice near where they burrow, sometimes 

 making an almost entire clearance while snow lies on the 

 ground. They do great damage in young plantations up to 

 seven years of age ; and in most places it is mere waste of time, 

 land, and money to try and grow young timber-crops without 

 careful and expensive wire-netting of each plantation. But 

 wire-netting is worse than useless unless the area enclosed is 

 absolutely cleared of rabbits, and netting of 1-inch mesh is used 

 to keep out very young rabbits. If once these get inside, an 

 enclosed plantation, it becomes a warren, and they very soon 

 do great damage. The only kinds of trees they do not attack 

 are old thick-barked Oak and Corsican Pine, the latter being 

 usually damaged to a far less extent than Larch, Douglas Fir, 

 Spruce, or Scots Pine. 



Protection against (j round-game can only be secured by wire- 

 netting^nurseries and young plantations. Broad-leaved saplings 



