THE COMMON HARE. 



eyes open. After less than a month's suckling, the leverets, 

 as they are called, leave their mother to seek their food afar 

 off and apart. 



" Whilst I was at Gottingen," says Dr. Townson, " a leveret 

 was brought me, and so young that I at first kept it in a bird- 

 cage. It soon became a favourite, and would sit or sleep on 

 my sofa and bed. In the evening it was very frolicksome 

 and gay, and used to leap upon my bed, and playfully beat me 

 with its fore-feet, and knock my book out of my hand if reading. 

 Notwithstanding this familiarity it was extremely timid, and 

 did great mischief more than once upon the entrance of a 

 stranger. When I had it a twelvemonth, I took it in a bag 

 into an extensive wood a few miles off, and sitting down let it 

 out. It did not run away, but began to browse, yet by degrees 

 went further off. When it was at some distance, I approached 

 it and it sat down ; but when I got within about a dozen or 

 twenty yards it was frightened, set off at full speed, and I saw 

 it no more."* 



Griffith, the translator of Cuvier's Rtgne Animal, says that 

 some years ago there was exhibited in the streets of London a 

 tame hare, which moved fearlessly about a table in the midst of 

 the surrounding multitude, heedless of their noise and the tones 

 of a hand-organ. This hare, " was taught to beat a tarnbarine 

 very rapidly with its fore-paws ; and as a still further proof 

 how completely its fears were neutralized, it was accustomed 

 to pull the trigger and discharge a pistol, rather large in 

 dimensions and calibre, and commensurate consequently in 

 report : and as this was repeated perhaps every half hour, it 

 can hardly be supposed that the animal was taken by surprise, 

 as to the consequences of pulling the trigger, nor did it exhibit 

 the least alarm or shock on making the report, which would, in 

 all probability, have turned a lion, unless he had been similarly 

 trained." 



The hare being one of the most timid and defenceless of all 

 animals, and very swift of foot, the pursuit of her gives pleasure 

 * Tractt and Observations in Natural History (1799), p. 146. 



2 B2 



