THE VARYING HARE 



But of all his enemies none is more 

 inveterate than man, though he is not, 

 as are the others, impelled by necessity, 

 but only by that savagery, the survival 

 of barbarism, which we dignify by the 

 name of the sporting instinct. 



Against them all, how slight seem 

 the defenses of such a weak and timid 

 creature. Yet impartial nature, having 

 compassed him about with foes, has shod 

 his feet with swiftness and silence, and 

 clad his body with an almost invisible 

 garment. The vagrant zephyrs touch 

 the fallen leaves more noisily than his 

 soft pads press them. The first snow 

 that whitens the fading gorgeousness 

 of the forest carpet falls scarcely more 

 silently. 



Among the tender greens of early 

 summer and the darker verdure of mid- 

 summer, the hare's brown form is as in- 

 conspicuous as a tuft of last year's leaves, 

 and set in the brilliancy of autumnal 

 tints, or the russet hue of their decay, 

 it still eludes the eye. Then winter 

 clothes him in her own whiteness so he 

 may sit unseen upon her lap. 



When he has donned his winter suit 

 220 



