COMMON HARE, 
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14 will run among them, and no vigilance can 
drive it from the flock ; some will enter holes 
like the rabbit, which the hunters call going to 
vault ; some will go up one side of the hedge, 
and come down the other ; and it has been known 
that a hare sorely hunted has got upon the top of 
a quick-set hedge, and run a good way thereon, 
by which it has effectually evaded the hounds. 
It is no unusual thing also for them to betake 
themselves to furz bushes, and to leap from one to 
another, by which the dogs are frequently misled. 
However, the first doubling a hare makes is gene- 
rally a key to all its future attempts of that kind, 
the latter being exactly like the former. The 
young hares tread heavier, and leave a stronger 
scent than the old, because their limbs are weaker ; 
and the more this forlorn creature tires, the heavier 
it treads, and the stronger is the scent it leaves. 
A buck, or male hare, is known by its choosing to 
run upon hard highways, feeding farther from the 
wood-sides, and making its doublings of a greater 
compass than the female. The male having made 
a turn or two about its form, frequently leads the 
hounds five or six miles on a stretch ; but the 
female keeps close by some covert side, turns, 
crosses, and winds among the bushes like a rabbit, 
and seldom runs directly forward. In general, 
however, both male and female regulate their 
conduct according to the weather. In a moist 
day they hold by the highways more than at any 
other time, because the scent is then strongest 
upon the grass. If they come to the side of a 
grove or spring, they forbear to enter, but squat 
down by the side thereof, until the bounds have 
overshot them ; and then, turning along their former 
path, make to their old form, from which they 
vainly hope for protection. 
Hares are divided, by the hunters, into moun« 
