THE HARE AND ITS WAYS 51 



especially wheat-straw, is another of their dainties ; 

 they will feed greedily upon oats, but if furnished 

 with clean straw never want them ; it serves them 

 also for a bed, and if shaken up daily will be kept 

 sweet and dry for a considerable time. They do not, 

 indeed, require aromatic herbs, but will eat a small 

 quantity of them with relish, and are particularly 

 fond of the plant called musk ; they seem to resemble 

 sheep in this that, if their pasture be too succulent, 

 they are very subject to the rot ; to prevent which, 

 I always make bread their principal nourishment, 

 and, filling a pan with it, cut in small squares, placed 

 it every evening in their chambers, for they feed only 

 at evening and in the night ; during the winter, when 

 vegetables were not to be got, I mingled this mess of 

 bread with shreds of carrot, adding to it the rind of 

 apples cut extremely thin ; for, though they are fond 

 of the paring, the apple itself disgusts them. These, 

 however, not being a sufficient substitute for the juice 

 of summer herbs, they must at this time be supplied 

 with water, but so placed that they cannot overset 

 it into their beds. I must not omit that occasionally 

 they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn, and 

 of common briar, eating even the very wood when it is 

 of considerable thickness." 



In a state of nature hares are extremely fond, in 

 addition to some of the foods described by Cowper, 

 of pinks, parsley, and birch. They have a great 

 weakness for clover, and will go far to feed upon it ; 

 they devour the bark and wood of many young trees, 

 and are, therefore, by no means desirable neighbours 

 of a rising plantation. They are said, however, to 

 have an antipathy to alder and lime. 



In the daytime hares seldom leave their forms. 

 Towards evening they begin to move, and at this lime 



