368 THE COMMON HARE. 



part of its shadow being depicted upon the retina, and thus 

 communicating the alarm to the timid animal." 



Though included in the same genus with the rabbit, the hare 

 is neither a burrowing nor a social animal, but lives solitary, 

 and her resting-place, called a form, is merely a superficial 

 depression of the herbage, and which is too exposed to afford 

 shelter as a place of refuge. She is so reluctant to abandon 

 her form, that she not only sleeps on it during the day, but 

 if disturbed and forced to run for her life, she constantly 

 returns to it after the longest chace hence the proverbial 

 observation that the hare returns home to die. The seasons, 

 however, compel her to change her quarters. In winter, she 

 selects a spot for her form exposed to the south, and will sit 

 in thorn and bramble-bushes near towns and villages 5 but in 

 summer she prefers a shady spot with a northern aspect, and 

 situated in a corn field or open land. Ben Jonson, thus 

 notices these facts : 



ScatlocJc. " First think which way the witch formeth, on what wind: or 



north or south. 



George. For, as the shepherd said, a witch is a kind of hare. 

 Scat lock. And marks the weather, as the hare does." 



(Sad Shepherd, 1641, Act III. Scene 8.) 



The colour of the hare generally so well accords with that 

 of the herbage amongst which she forms, or of the sandy soil 

 on which she sometimes squats, that she would often escape 

 detection were it not for her conspicuous and lustrous eye. 

 I have more than once nearly trod upon a hare in her form - } 

 and most persons in the "habit of quietly strolling over the 

 country, can relate similar incidents. 



" The wither'd grass that clung 

 Around her head, of the same russet hue, 

 Almost deceiv'd my sight, had not her eyes, 

 With life full beaming, her vain wiles betray'd." 



(Somerville's Chase, 1742.) 



Her fore-legs being much shorter than her hind pair, she 



runs more easily up than down hill ; therefore, she never runs 



own hill if she can help it, and even then she winds about ; 



