54 HARE-HUNTING AND HARRIERS 



she rose from her form, swam across a rivulet, then 

 lay down among the bushes on the other side, and by 

 this means evaded the scent of the hounds. When 

 a hare has been chased for a considerable length of 

 time, she will sometimes push another from its seat 

 and lie down there herself. When hard pressed, 

 she will mingle with a flock of sheep, run up an old 

 wall and conceal herself among the grass on the top 

 of it, or cross a river several times at small distances." 

 These are, with the exception of the wall-trick, of 

 which I have never had ocular demonstration, familiar 

 expedients in the pursuit of a hare. I believe that 

 hares do, on occasion, run walls for the purpose of 

 evading their pursuers ; they will spring on to hedges 

 and, it is said, even gorse, for the same purpose. In 

 fact, they are so clever and so resourceful that they will 

 do almost anything. The mazes they weave in foiling 

 their own line are perfectly astounding. Jack hares, 

 travelling after the turn of the year on errands of 

 love-making, will sometimes give excellent and straight- 

 away runs. Jacks are said to be stouter and better 

 stayers than the does, and there is probably truth 

 in this assertion. An old writer has remarked that 

 the hare runs against the wind. The truth is that, 

 unlike the fox, which almost always takes down wind 

 as soon as he can manage it, the hare will run in any 

 direction, and takes little or no account of the direction 

 in which the wind is blowing. Hares nearly always 

 return to the country in which their form lies, and, 

 if they escape, may be found seated there the following 

 day. How often has one seen, after a good hunt, 

 the hare killed within a field or two, sometimes even 

 in the very fallow or plough, or grass pasture, from 

 which she was put up ! The direction in which she 

 first leans is most usually that which she wiU subse- 



