128 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



good and careful observer: — "It is not easy to distinguish a 

 Hare when crouching in a ploughed field, his colour harmonises 

 sojwell with the clods, so that an unpractised eye generally fails 

 to note him. An old hand with the gun cannot pass a field 

 without involuntarily glancing along the furrows made by the 

 plough, to see if their regular grooves are broken by anything 

 hiding therein." .... "If you watch the farmers driving to 

 market, you will see that they glance up the furrows to note the 

 workmanship and look for game ; you may tell from a distance if 

 they espy a Hare, by the check of the rein and the extended hand 

 pointing."* Though the American Hare has the colour of its 

 pile turned grey in winter, it is still much persecuted by the 

 Great Virginian and Snowy Owls, " which prey extensively on 

 the animal, keeping it in a constant state of dread, especially 

 during winter, when, in common with other rodents, it seeks to 

 evade the stoop of rapacious birds by diving- instantly headlong 

 into the snow, thus escaping them, but ensuring destruction by 

 man, and such animals as the Fisher-cat and Lynx, who can 

 easily dig it out."t It must not be overlooked that many 

 zoologists and evolutionists estimate the survival of the Hare as 

 due to the protection acquired by their speed, the animals having 

 lived under conditions in which only the swift could escape the 

 attacks of their enemies. Besides this aspect, the animal trusts 

 to its highly developed cunning. Mr. Kearton, a good and 

 practical observer, writes: — "When Hares are going to seek their 

 day or sleeping quarters, they practise a very ingenious trick in 

 order to mislead and baffle their enemies. This consists of 

 travelling for some distance in a direction they have no intention 

 of pursuing, and then doubling back exactly along their own 

 track for a good way, and suddenly leaving it by making a 

 tremendous sideward bound to right or left. This being accom- 

 plished to their satisfaction, they trot off at right angles to the 

 path they have just left, and go to their forms."! The Hare 

 itself seems to be well aware that the safety gained by colour- 

 concealment is very precarious. The poet Somerville knew 

 this. 



* ' Wild Life in a Southern County,' new edit., pp. 7-8. 



f A. Leith Adams, ' Field and Forest Rambles,' p. 80. 



t ' Wild Life at Home,' p. 114. 



