8 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
with the fore-pads as if boxing, only the blow is 
delivered downwards instead of from the shoulder. 
The clatter of their pads may be heard much farther 
than would be supposed. Round and round they go 
like a couple waltzing ; now one giving ground and 
then the other, the fore-legs striking all the while 
with marvellous rapidity. Presently they pause—it is 
to recover breath only ; and, ‘time’ being up, to work 
they go again with renewed energy, dancing round 
and round, till the observer cannot choose but smile. 
This trick they will continue till you are weary of 
watching. 
There are holes on the hills, not above a yard deep 
and entering the slope horizontally, which are said to 
be used by the hares more in a playful mood than 
from any real desire of shelter. Yet they dislike wet ; 
most wild animals do. Birds, on the contrary, find it 
answer their purpose, grubs and worms abounding at 
such times. Though the hare is of a wandering dis- 
position he usually returns to the same form, and, if 
undisturbed, will use it every day for a length of time, 
at night perhaps being miles away. If hard pressed 
by the dogs he will leap a broad brook in fine style, 
but he usually prefers to cross by a’ bridge. In the 
evening, as it grows dusk, if you watch from the eleva- 
tion of the entrenchment, you may see these creatures 
steal out into the level cornfield below, first one, then 
two, presently five or six—looming much larger than 
they really are in the dusk, and seeming to appear 
