2 8 1 The Hare. 



The peculiar attraction which green wheat-straw, and in 

 a less manner green barley- or oat-straw, possesses for hares, 

 provides the poacher with other opportunities, of which he 

 is not slow to take advantage. They do not touch the ears, 

 only the straw and blade, and nibble through the plant 

 either above or below where the blades spring from the 

 stem. 



I do not think it would serve any good purpose to go 

 too closely into the details of how hares are poached. I 

 have specified the conditions when this may occur, and the 

 keeper must ascertain from experience the means to be 

 taken for preventing it in the varied and successful ways 

 it is carried on. Let it only be remembered that hares 

 travel about at night-times in a remarkable manner, and 

 invariably cover the same paths when in search of food or 

 when on courtship intent. 



Hares suffer from but a comparatively small number of 

 diseases, and only to severe extent when too closely pre- 

 served, or in times following continued bad weather. 

 Against the latter little can be undertaken ; but it is im- 

 possible to maintain hares in a healthy state and over- 

 crowd them at the same time. What is possible in the 

 case of rabbits is utterly out of the question with hares, and 

 where the former remain healthy and free from epidemic 

 disease, the latter go down before it in hundreds. One or 

 two such diseases then attack them. They would appear 

 to be forms of enteric and typhus fevers. The latter, 

 which is the least common, is very rapid and highly in- 

 fectious. The intestines become greatly inflamed and fre- 

 quently pitted, the visceral cavity in pronounced cases 

 being full of a blood-coloured liquid, which in earlier 

 stages is only present as a slight discharge on the surface 

 of the intestines. The lungs at the same time become 

 quite putrid, and exude a disgusting odour, the breath 

 from such victims being infectious in the highest degree. 



