POSSIBLE PETS 
280 
turned over to younger sisters in favour of a terrier 
puppy after brief possession. Yet even after the ex- 
perience of tame hares so charmingly told by Cowper, 
the most domestic of poets, the hare is neglected as a 
pet. Yet its form and fur are beautiful, and so far as 
the writer has been able to judge of this, perhaps one 
of the least carefully observed, except for persecution, 
of our wild animals, the hare is a clever, affectionate 
creature, as far above the rabbit in the scale of intelli- 
gence as it is in physique. Last spring, after a late 
fall of snow, an old hare brought her leverets from 
the hill, and hid them in a straw-stack near a farm, 
and remained constantly near them all day, coming 
to them regularly as soon as the twilight made it 
safe. They are bold as well as affectionate, and 
have been known to drive off a hawk which was 
carrying away a young one, springing up and striking 
the bird as it flew low above the ground ; and their 
attachment to locality is so great, that even if kept at 
large, they would probably not leave their owner’s 
grounds. 
A charming little foreign pet for the house is the 
suricate, or meer-cat. This pretty creature, which, 
if we remember rightly, was among the number of 
Frank Buckland’s animal companions, is an active 
and vivacious little fellow, some 10 in. long, with 
greenish-brown fur, large bright eyes, a short pointed 
nose and dainty paws, which, like the squirrel’s or 
the racoon’s, are used as hands, to hold, to handle, 
and to ask for more. Eloquent in supplication, 
