THE BROWN HARE. 197 



are the animal's propelling-members. Often the 

 creature's life is dependent upon a sudden, lightning 

 spurt shooting off into space to foil the first 

 dash of Reynard, who has discovered it in its 

 form, and knows well that if once the hare gets 

 on its legs the game is up. A hare has even 

 been known to break one of its legs in shooting 

 off the mark, the bone proving insufficiently strong 

 for the sudden strain thrown upon it. The fore- 

 legs are comparatively feeble, functioning more 

 or less as pivots over which the creature bounds, 

 and it is because the forelegs are inadequate for 

 the strain thrown upon them by the gigantic 

 bounds that a hare is so much at a disadvantage 

 in going downhill. If by any accident one of 

 the hind-legs becomes injured, the cripple will 

 most assuredly disappear, for, robbed of its powers 

 of flight, it can no longer hold out against its many 

 foes. The first fox it meets knows instantly that 

 'there is something wrong with that hare,' and 

 Reynard soon succeeds in profiting by the poor 

 creature's disablement. 



LIMITATIONS. 



A good hare will run any ordinary dog to a 

 standstill, with miles of energy to spare ; but 

 though one of the most marvellous running- 

 machines in creation, he is, nevertheless, a creature 

 of mortal limits. Pursued by beagles, bounding 

 ahead of them mile after mile, and keeping them 

 on the distant skyline, in the end he mounts a 

 wall as a point of observation, and hounds and 

 huntsmen, coming up, find him crouching there, 

 still watching his back trail ! But it is a limp 

 and lifeless form the huntsman tosses to the 

 hounds ; for here, again, the old, old tricks are 



