200 THE BROWN HARE. 



their lives apart. Not one single lesson as regards 

 the circumventing of their numerous foes is taught 

 the young hares by their mother, yet they grow 

 up to hold their place among the wiliest of all 

 four-footed things. 



Among the comparatively modern enemies of 

 the hare, regarding which it must learn by experi- 

 ence, are the hempen-net, the snare, and the net 

 set across the open gateway. If hares, like foxes 

 and deer, possessed among their gifts the ability 

 to hand on their experience to their children, then 

 these modern engines of man would be set at 

 naught by their cunning. A hare lives to grow 

 wise ; by chance rather than sound judgment it 

 has evaded death time and again ere, in its 

 old age, the wisdom of experience is added to its 

 inherited knowledge. But the children of that 

 hare profit in no way by its learning. They are 

 as unsophisticated as regards the modern engines 

 of mankind as are the first brood of a dam who 

 has lived in perfect security. This is yet another 

 factor that makes it difficult to understand the 

 hare's powers of survival. It is surrounded by 

 foes ; anything that can catch a hare can kill it ; 

 it is prone to all the ills and ailments of mortal 

 flesh barring, perhaps, kleptomania and orator's 

 throat ; the knowledge of the parents is denied the 

 children they have no friends or guardians, save 

 the strength and agility of their own hind-legs and 

 their own powers of reproduction. Truly the hare 

 is among the marvels of modern existence. 



My sympathies are all with the village poacher, 

 though hating the petty meannesses and unmanly 

 vengeances peculiar to the class. The hare is a 

 glorious creature of the chase, to be coveted not 

 so much for its value as so much meat, but for the 



