THE BKOWN HARE. 205 



then she takes a terrific leap to one side or the 

 other, and repeats the performance. I knew one 

 hare whose leverets were hidden at the edge of a 

 swamp, and in coming and going she always 

 threaded a tortuous course through this swamp, 

 jumping and back-tracking many times, and seeking 

 out the wettest patches, where the scent would 

 not lie. 



I have heard of a hare leaping on to a hedgerow, 

 then off again at a tangent, in order to break the 

 line ; and I have watched one leap into a swamp 

 that lay out of its direct pathway when going 

 down to its feeding-grounds the diversion being 

 made, apparently, for the sole purpose of breaking 

 the line. 



INTELLIGENCE. 



Just where does the hare stand in the scale of 

 animal intelligence ? Higher than the rabbit, yet a 

 long way below the deer and the otter. It has not 

 even advanced to the first stage of civilisation by 

 keeping its home clean and sanitary, and in this 

 may lie the secret of the fearful epidemics which 

 occasionally devastate the whole hare population 

 of certain areas. 



But the hare profits by previous experience, and 

 in this lies the beginning of wisdom. A mother- 

 rabbit blunders into the same mistakes season by 

 season, and her young are taken from her by the 

 same harsh fate ; but a hare seldom blunders 

 twice into the same mistake. ' Once bitten, twice 

 shy,' is the axiom of her existence. The whole 

 trouble lies in the fact that the young do not 

 profit by the experience of their elders. Each 

 has its own way to make and its own experience 

 to gain. Were this not so, the hare would 



