THE COMMON HARE. 47Q 



these insects, and preserve the wearer himself froni 

 their troublesome attacks. 



Dogs and Foxes pursue the Hare by instinct; 

 Wild Cats, Weesels, and birds of prey, devour it ; 

 and Man, £ir more powerful than all its other ene- 

 mies, makes use of every artifice to seize upon 

 an animal which constitutes one of tlie numerous 

 delicacies of his table. Even this poor defenceless 

 beast is rendered an object of amusement, in its 

 chase, to this most arrogant of all animals, who 

 boasts his superiority over the brute creation in the 

 possession of intellect and reason. Wretchedly in- 

 deed are these perverted when exercised in so cruel, 

 so unmanly a pursuit : 



Poor is the triumph o'er the dm'ul Hare! 

 Yet vahi her best precaution : though she sits 

 Cunceal'd with folded ears ; unsleeping eyes. 

 By nature rais'd to take th' horizan in; 

 And head conceal 'd betwixt her hairy feet. 

 In act to spring away. The scented dew 

 Betrays her early labyrinth ; and deep 

 In scatter'd, sullen openings, far behind^ 

 With ev'ry breeze she hears the coming storm : 

 But nearer, and more frequent, as it leads 

 The sighing gale, she springs amaz'd, and all 

 The savage soul of game is up at once. 



In India the Hare is hunted for sport ; not only 

 with Dogs, but with Hawks, and some species of 

 the Cat tribe. The flesh, though in esteem among 

 the Romans, was forbidden by the Druids, and by 

 the Britons of the early centuries. It is novv, 

 though very black, dry, and devoid of fat, much 

 esteemed by the Europeans^ on account of ito pecu- 

 liar flavour. 



