198 THE BROWN HARE. 



set at naught, the marvellous uphill sweep has 

 failed to leave his pursuers behind, and he has 

 died as he has lived watching his back trail. 

 Looking behind ! That is why he holds the road- 

 way ahead of the motorist ; that is why he often 

 falls when descending a mountain-side at speed ; 

 and be his last effort the act of climbing to a 

 point of observation, or launching himself into 

 space in a final supreme effort to outstrip his 

 pursuers, he is always looking behind. 



No creature has so many foes, no creature is 

 so widely coveted. Snares, nets, dogs, guns 

 these are but a few of the perils that beset him 

 every hour of his life ; yet he has survived, while 

 so many wild-folks that once shared his habitat 

 have quietly laid down their arms and retired 

 from the field. 



DISPOSITION. 



In disposition hares are the most solitary of all 

 four-footed, warm-blooded things. They never 

 associate except for the brief period of the honey- 

 moon, being, of course, polygamous animals. 

 Something of the solitude of their disposition 

 begins to show immediately after birth, when very 

 often the youngsters separate, and each makes 

 for itself a solitary form, uniting only when the 

 mother calls them at meal-times. If two hares be 

 started side by side, they invariably run in different 

 directions, the only exception to this rule I have 

 come across being that subsequently recorded of 

 two Jacks running together to engage in combat. 

 If a honeymooning couple be flushed together, they 

 separate immediately, to reunite later on, guided 

 as to each other's direction by their sense of smell. 

 The scent-glands are highly developed, purely for 



