HARES, RABBITS, AND FARMERS. 215 



rabbits do no harm to the farmer, but I do 

 maintain that in many instances, these un- 

 fortunate animals have had to bear the 

 blame for things which have been the result of 

 nothing else but bad farming. 



I will take the two (hares and rabbits) 

 separately, and show as far as I am compe- 

 tent to judge, the exact proportion of damage 

 they each of them do. Of the two, then, 

 I consider the hare is the worst offender ; 

 both are nocturnal ramblers and feeders, but 

 the hare roams far afield, whilst the rabbit 

 never gets a great distance from his burrow. 

 The hare, too, is a destructive feeder ; it will 

 often cut down blade after blade of young 

 wheat out of sheer mischief. All fields are 

 alike to her, as she is migratory in her habits, 

 and if she is not " located with regard to 

 cover," she may be here to-day and two or 

 three miles off to-morrow seeking a new home, 

 but once " located " to a cover, she seldom 

 migrates to another one. I have known hares 

 when disturbed off a farm always make for 

 their home cover, even though it be a mile 



