HARES AND RABBITS 135 



before, when the hounds were there. I said that 

 was the very reason why they were not there now. 

 But it was not much fun proving to the hilt how 

 hares hate hounds. 



I do not think that the typhous disease from 

 which hares suffer is caused by overcrowding, since 

 it occurs where hares are numerous or few. Feed- 

 ing on frosted clover I am certain has a great deal 

 to do with the disease. The worst outbreak I ever 

 had was after a very wet, mild autumn, when there 

 came a sudden frost. The clover was very rank 

 and sappy. That winter I found the dead bodies 

 of sixty odd hares on a thirty-five-acre field of 

 clover. 



Every year, so soon as the hares' runs on the 

 clover turned black (owing to the frosted leaves 

 being bruised by the hares' feet), we began to find 

 dead and ailing hares. The smaller the hare, the 

 sooner it succumbed. The hares which lived in my 

 woods, near which there was no clover, scarcely 

 suffered at all from the disease. It is a mistake to 

 suppose that hares go miles for food if they are 

 well provided near home, I had a stack of barley- 

 rakings to about every fifteen acres of covert, and 

 it was no uncommon sight at any hour of the day 

 to see half a dozen hares feeding at one stack. 

 Give hares a quiet wood containing plenty of 

 underwood stumps for shelter, some barley-stacks 

 to feed at, and an adjoining field of old sainfoin, 



