202 FROM SPRING TO FALL. 



in gifts and gallantry. If a couple of hares fall 

 out, they settle the matter by sitting up and boxing 

 each other in the most scientific manner imaginable. 

 The poet Cowper, as most of us are aware, kept 

 some hares as pets, and they defended themselves 

 or showed their displeasure in that way. 



As an article of food he is, of course, in great 

 request, sought for by those who are without a 

 licence to hunt him, as well as by those who have 

 one, so he need be wary and watchful. 



He varies in size and weight, according to local 

 surroundings. The marshland hares and those 

 found in southern park-lands, where the herbage is 

 rich, are much larger than those that have their 

 living to get in less favourable localities. His wild 

 enemies are the fox and the stoat, but they do not 

 catch him very often. Sometimes the fox will chase 

 him in the open, but he must be sharp-set to do it. 

 Man is his chief foe, and in one form or another all 

 manner of devices are employed for his destruction. 

 Hares are certainly not so numerous as they once 

 were, even in the most favourable places. Farmers 

 complain of the damage done to the crops by them : 

 there is some reason in their grumblings ; but that 



