THE VARYING HARE 



too early and his white coat is danger- 

 ously conspicuous on the brown leaves 

 and among the misty gray of naked 

 undergrowth, he permits your near ap- 

 proach as confidently as if he were of a 

 color with his surroundings. Is he not 

 aware that his spotless raiment betrays 

 him, or does he trust that he may be 

 mistaken for a white stone or a scroll 

 of bark sloughed from a white birch ? 

 That would hardly save him from the 

 keener-sensed birds and beasts of prey, 

 but may fool your dull eyes. 



In summer wanderings in the woods 

 you rarely catch sight of him, though 

 coming upon many faintly traced paths 

 where he and his wife and their brown 

 babies make their nightly way among 

 the ferns. Nor are you often favored 

 with a sight of him in more frequent 

 autumnal tramps, unless when he is flee- 

 ing before the hounds whose voices 

 guide you to a point of observation. 

 He has now no eyes nor ears for any- 

 thing but the terrible clamor that pur- 

 sues him wherever he turns, however he 

 doubles. If a shot brings him down and 

 does not kill him, you will hear a cry so 



221 



