" About sundown they rise from their forms and commence to search for food." 



THE COMMON HARE 



T 



HE Common Hare is too 

 abundant and well known 

 to need description, and I 

 will therefore content my- 

 self by mentioning some of 

 its interesting habits. 



Although destitute of any 

 kind of defence against its 

 enemies, Nature has endowed this timid 

 animal with wonderful compensating 

 powers. Its coloration is admirably 

 adapted for concealment, and its senses 

 of sight and hearing for detecting danger 

 from the presence of which its strong 

 limbs can carry it with great swiftness. 



Hares are most active by night, and 

 spend the greater part of the day in a 

 seat or form, the situation of which is 

 chosen according to wind, sunshine and 

 season. In the winter a sunlit slope 

 sheltered from the wind is preferred, but 

 in the summer these factors do not 

 appear to enter so much into the con- 

 sideration of the animals. 



About sundown they rise from their 

 forms and commence to search for food, 

 hopping leisurely over the ground and 

 stopping ever and anon to sit up on 

 their haunches and with ears erect listen 

 intently for any sound of approaching 

 danger. Upon retiring to their seats in 

 the early hours of the morning they 

 practise a wonderful piece of deception 

 whereby to mislead any enemy likely to 

 track them by scent. Travelling for 

 some distance in a direction they have 

 no intention of ultimately pursuing, they 

 double back along their own tracks 

 some way, and leaving them by a tre- 

 mendous bound to right or left, go off 

 at right angles to repose for the day. I 

 have known a very suspicious animal 

 repeat these cunning tactics two or 

 three times over before retiring to its 

 form. 



During severe winters Hares fre- 

 quently resort to what is known in the 

 north of England as " caving." This 



