206 THE BROWN HARE. 



assuredly be among the fittest of the land, for to 

 its natural gifts would be added the ability 

 to adapt itself to changed conditions, and thus 

 to become modernised, as have the deer, the 

 otter, and the fox. 



DISEASES. 



But it is as well the knowledge gained by 

 experience is not transmitted, or nature would 

 fall back upon disease to make up what was 

 lost by the baffling of the hare's foes. In this 

 country the hare population is reasonably free 

 from disease, owing to the fact that they are 

 never over-plentiful ; but in other countries the 

 number of hares periodically becomes so enormous 

 that they literally overrun the land. In certain 

 parts of Canada, for instance, hare plagues occur 

 regularly. In two or three seasons their numbers 

 increase from a moderate sprinkling to tens of 

 hundreds per square mile. It becomes impos- 

 sible for man to cope with their numbers, for 

 thousands may be killed without making any 

 appreciable difference. One can stand in a 

 clearing of the forest and count literally dozens 

 of hares without moving one's standpoint. Seton 

 estimates their numbers at such times as five 

 thousand to the square mile, allowing one mile 

 in two as not suited to the hare's tastes, and, 

 therefore, being unoccupied by them, which means 

 ten thousand to the square mile of suitable 

 grazing. 



Such plagues do not last long a few months 

 at the most sees them through ; for disease, every 

 disease under the sun, soon becomes rife, and in a 

 season or two not a hare is left. It takes not only 

 the weak, but also the strong ; it clears the whole 



