WAYS OF THE HUNTED 259 



there appears to have little idea of any course to follow, and 

 is, as a rule, easily caught. For the rabbit is a stay-at-home, 

 venturing very little way from his burrow, except in the 

 evening or under stress of food. During a time of deep 

 snow, they will travel quite a long way to find where the 

 snow is drifted up against ash saplings ; and so a platform 

 is provided for their meal off the tenderer bark. Many 

 people have been puzzled when the snow is gone, to account 

 for these barked places high above the ground. 



No form of the hunt has more spectacular attractions to 

 the multitude ; and yet none, at 

 least as it appears to some of us, 

 is less endurable than coursing. 

 The hare appears to have been 

 developed on purpose to escape 

 the greyhound. The eyes are 

 set back so that without turn of 



the head a full sight is obtained ""V* '****?* v */* 

 of the pursuer. If you stand still 



a hare, blind to things immediately in front, will run right up 

 to your feet, but there is no approaching a hare from the back 

 or either side. The eyes are made for flight ; and if you 

 could regard the sport without other feelings as an athletic 

 feat, the jink or quick turn of hare at the last possible moment 

 would thrill you with admiration. It is timed with perfect 

 precision, and is so rhythmic that it seems part of the natural 

 paces. But Darwinian nature works more slowly than the 

 fancier, and the pursuer has been developed to a perfection 

 that leaves the pursued almost helpless. No sight is more 

 heartrending than the vain exercise of their supreme turn 

 and 'bends.' Atalanta's suitors had as poor a chance and 

 were as ruthlessly slaughtered. Except in good grass 

 country not one hare in a score escapes ; and the uncomely 



