HARE. 
357 
rens or blind holes ; the reason probably being that in 
the one case the living inhabitants are free to vacate the 
offensive locality, while in the other case they are not so. 
Anyhow, there can be no reasonable doubt that the in- 
stinct of removing their dead has arisen in rabbits from 
the necessity of keeping their confined domiciles in a 
pure state. 
Hare . 
The hare is a more intelligent animal than the rabbit. 
Possibly its much greater powers of locomotion may be 
one cause of its mental superiority to its nearest congener. 
I have never myself observed a hare commit the mistake 
already mentioned in the case of the rabbit, viz., that of 
crouching for concealment upon an inappropriately coloured 
surface. But the best idea of the comparatively high 
intelligence of the hare will be gained by the following 
quotations. The first of these is taken from Loudoun’s 
6 Magazine of Natural History 5 (vol. iv., p. 143) : — 
It is especially conscious of the scent left by its feet, and of 
the danger which threatens it in consequence ; a reflection 
which implies as much knowledge of the habits of its enemies 
as of its own. When about to enter its seat for the purpose 
of rest, it leaps in various directions, and crosses and recrosses 
its path with repeated springs ; and at last, by a leap of greater 
energy than it has yet used, it effects a lodgment in the selected 
spot, which is chosen rather to disarm suspicion than to protect 
it from injury. In the i Manuel du Chasseur * some instances 
are quoted from an ancient volume on hunting by Jaques du 
Fouillouse. A hare intending to mislead its pursuers has been 
seen spontaneously to quit its seat and to proceed to a pond at the 
distance of nearly a mile, and having washed itself, push off 
again through a quantity of rushes. It has, too, been known, 
when pursued to fatigue by dogs, to thrust another hare from 
its seat and squat itself down in its place. This author has 
seen hares swim successively through two or three ponds, of 
which the smallest was eighty paces round. He has known it, 
after a long chase, to creep under the door of a sheep-house and 
rest among the cattle, and when the hounds were in pursuit, it 
would get into the middle of a flock of sheep and accompany 
them in all their motions round the field, refusing by any means 
to quit the shelter they afforded. The stratagem of its passing 
