136 TEN YEARS OF GAME-KEEPING 



and nine out of ten will be content to stay at home 

 all through the winter. 



It is obvious that one hare eats as much food 

 as one rabbit. Yet if there are twenty hares and 

 twenty rabbits living on the same farm, the rabbits 

 soon may bring upon their heads the wrath of man, 

 while the hares, though they eat probably a greater 

 quantity of food that is, do more damage provoke 

 no murmur of complaint. So it seems logical that 

 if rabbits, even in small numbers, are injurious to 

 the welfare of woods and farming interests, the 

 same quantity of hares must inflict at least an equal 

 amount of damage. But this is not so in fact. 

 Rabbits prefer to feed as close as possible to their 

 lodgings, and make a clean sweep as they go, clear- 

 ing a crop before them, as do sheep in a fold. 

 Hares, on the other hand, move about, and take 

 a nibble here and there, and unless they are very 

 numerous, the only material damage they do is to 

 clear a few roads through the corn in summer, and 

 to gnaw a few roots in winter. In the latter case, 

 they are so considerate as to stick to a root till 

 finished, instead of chipping fresh ones, and so 

 causing them to rot. 



Fortunately, those who preside over farming 

 interests, whether tenant-farmers or bailiffs, are not 

 given to expressing concern for what their eyes do 

 not see ; and even if a farmer does complain that 

 hares are nibbling his wheat in spring, when it is 



