HARES AND RABBITS. 223 



Sutherland. In Argyllshire it is rare, and may have been 

 introduced, as it has certainly been in Mull and some of the 

 other islands. 



Habits. — The following account of the habits of the Common 

 Hare is taken from Macgillivray, who writes that, like the 

 other species of the genus, it feeds entirely on vegetable 

 substances, such as grass, clover, corn, turnips, and the bark 

 of young trees, sometimes inflicting great injury on the latter, 

 especially in winter. Towards evening it comes abroad in 

 quest of food, and continues to search for it during the night, 

 in conformity with which habits the pupil of its eye is large 

 and of an oblong form. It advances by leaps, and as its hind- 

 legs are much longer than the front ones, it runs with more 

 ease up hill than down, especially on steep declivities. 

 During the day it reposes in a crouching or half-sitting posture 

 in its " form," which is a selected spot to which it usually 

 resorts, among grass, ferns, or bushes. Its senses of hearing 

 and seeing are extremely acute ; its eyes, being placed directly 

 on the sides of the head, take in a wide range, while its long 

 ears can be readily turned in any direction, forwards, outwards, 

 or backwards, so as to catch the smallest sounds indicative of 

 hostility. Being in a manner defenceless, and having no 

 burrow or fastness to which it may retreat, the Hare trusts to 

 vigilance and extraordinary speed to enable it to elude its 

 numerous enemies. 



It is chiefly to the lower and more cultivated districts that 

 the Common Hare resorts, but it is also found in the upland 

 valleys, and on the slopes of hills of considerable height. 

 Timid and gentle as it is, yet it is by no means innocuous, 

 for the injury it occasions to the young corn is often consider- 

 able. In the winter it finds an abundant supply of food in the 

 turnip-fields, and it sometimes visits gardens at night, more 

 especially when pinched by hunger during continued frost. It 



