UC-NRLF THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID FUR AND FEATHER SERIES edited by ALFRED E. T. WATSON THE HARE FUR AND FEATHER SERIES. EDITED BY ALFRED E. T. WATSON. THE PARTRIDGE. NATURAL HISTORY- By the Rev. H. A. MACPHERSON. SfiOOT/NGByA. J. STUART- WORTLEY.- COOKERY- By GEORGE SAINTSBURY. With ii Illustrations by A. THORBURN, A. J. STUART-WORTLEY, and C. WHYMPER, and various Diagrams. Crown 8vo. s-s. THE GROUSE. NATURAL HISTORY-^ the Rev. H. A. MACPHERSON. SHOO TING By A. J. STUART- WORTLEY. COOKERY By GEORGE SAINTSBURY. With 13 Illustrations by A. J. STUART-WORTLEY and A. THORBURN, and various Diagrams. Crown 8vo. 5$. THE PHEASANT. NATURAL HISTORY-^ the Rev. H. A. MACPHERSON. SHOOT/NGByA. J. STUART- WORTLEY. COOKERY By ALEXANDER INNES SHAND. With 10 Illustrations by A. THORBURN and A. J. STUART- WORTLEY, and various Diagrams. Crown 8vo. 55. THE HARE. NATURAL HISTORY-By the Rev. H. A. MACPHERSON. SHOO TING By the Hon. GERALD LASCELLES. COURSING By CHARLES RICHARDSON. - HUNTING By J. S. GIBBONS and G. H. LONGMAN. COOKER Y By Col. KENNEY HERBERT. With 8 Illus- trations by G. D. GILES, A. THORBURN, and C WHYMPER. Crown 8vo. 5$. WILDFOWL. By the Hon. JOHN SCOTT-MONTAGU, M.P. &c. {In preparation. THE RED DEER. By CAMERON OF LOCHIEL, Lord EBRINGTON, &c. [In preparation. LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO. London, New York, and Bombay. 'A HARE DRIVE THE HARE NATURAL HISTORY BY THE REV. H. A. JVt ACPHERSQN S&QOTING BY THE HON. GERALD LASCELLES COURSING BY CHARLES RICHARDSON HUNTING BY J. S. GIBBONS AND G. H. LONGMAN COOKERY BY COL. KENNEY HERBERT ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. D. GILES, A, THORBURN, AND C. WHYMPER \ LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. LONDON, NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY 1896 All ri glits reserved PREFACE THE design of the Fur and Feather Series is to present monographs, as complete as they can possibly be made, on the various English birds and beasts which are generally included under the head of Game. Books on Natural History cover such a vast number of subjects that their writers necessarily find it impossible to deal with each in a really comprehensive manner ; and it is not within the scope of such works exhaustively to discuss the animals described, in the light of objects of sport. Books on sport, again, seldom treat at length of the Natural History of the furred and feathered creatures which are shot or otherwise taken ; and, so far as the Editor is aware, in no book hitherto published on Natural History or Sport has information been given as to the best methods of turning the contents of the bag to account. M365082 PREFACE Each volume of the present Series will, therefore, be devoted to a bird or beast, and will be divided into three parts. The Natural History of the variety will first be given ; it will then be considered from the point of view of sport ; and the writer of the third division will assume that the creature has been carried to the larder, and will proceed to discuss it gas- tronomically. The origin of the animals will be traced, their birth and breeding described, every known method of circumventing and killing them not omitting the methods em- ployed by the poacher will be explained with special regard to modern developments, and they will only be left when on the table in the most appetising forms which the delicate science of cookery has discovered. It is intended to make the illustrations a prominent feature in the Series. The pictures in the present volume are after drawings by Mr. G. D. Giles, Mr. Archibald Thorburn, and Mr. C. Whymper. ALFRED E. T. WATSON. CONTENTS NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE BY THE REV. H. A. MACPHERSON CHAP. PAGE I. STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 3 II. PAGES OF HARE LORE 26 III. THE HARE AND THE LAWYERS . . . .49 IV. THE HARE AND HER TROD 62 SHOOTING THE HARE BY THE HON. GERALD LASCELLES I. SHOOTING 85 II. THE BLUE HARE POACHING HAWKING . . 95 COURSING THE HARE BY CHARLES RICHARDSON I. PRIVATE COURSING in II. PUBLIC COURSING . . .... 136 CONTENTS HUNTING THE HARE BEAGLING. BY G. H. LONGMAN HARRIERS. BY J. S. GIBBONS CHAP. I. HARE HUNTING ANCIENT AND MODERN 191 PAGE 179 ,, II. THE HARRIER 197 ,, III. THE PURSUIT OF THE HARE . . . 208 COOKERY 'OF 'THE HARE BY COL. KENNEY HERBERT 2 3 I ILLUSTRATIONS BY G. D. GILES, ARCHIBALD THORBURN, AND C. WHYMPER {Reproduced by the Swan Electric Engraving Company] VIGNETTE Title-page * A HARE DRIVE ' Frontispiece 'As MAD AS MARCH HARES' . . . To face p. 14 ' MAKING FOR THE HEDGEROW ' . . ,, 92 'SNARED* ,, IOO 'RETURNING TO THE ORIGINAL FIELD ' . . 122 'A CRITICAL MOMENT. THE HUNTSMAN STANDS STILL AS DEATH 5 . . . . ,, l8o 'DOES NOT KNOW WHAT NERVE MEANS' . ,, 2IO ' THE FARMER'S BOY ON HIS ROUGH PONY GETS A PERIOD OF ECSTATIC DELIGHT' . 226 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE BY THE REV. H. A. MACPHERSON CHAPTER I STUDIES IN HARE LIFE THE common brown hare has long been associated with the happiest traditions of English sport. Its presence on the countryside has served to draw all classes together, and contributed in no small degree to the maintenance of mutual sympathies. Nor is this true of British sportsmen alone. No doubt Englishmen are the sportsmen of the world, but our Continental neighbours entertain a friendly rivalry with the Saxon, and the number of hares which are annually killed at big drives in Austria represent enormous figures, beside which statistics of our English sport are dwarfed into sorry insignificance. The question naturally arises, To what countries is the brown hare really indigenous ? It is not a native of Ireland. The fact is a little surprising at first sight, but appears less astonishing when we remember how deficient that island is in mammalian life. Elsewhere B 3 4 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE in Europe the brown hare seems to be at home in all the more temperate countries. It shows a decided aversion to damp climates, thriving best in a mode- rately dry atmosphere. The high mountains and bleak plateaus of Central and Northern Europe are naturally ill adapted to the constitution of the brown hare. Accordingly this animal is replaced in elevated or inclement regions by the blue or variable hare, which contrives to pick up a living in the most deso- late and forbidding districts. It is this animal which takes the place of the brown hare in Ireland. Some naturalists have separated the Irish variety of the variable hare from the typical form, but it is question- able whether such a step can be considered prudent. As for the brown hare, it must be said that consider- able differences exist between examples obtained in Northern and Southern Europe. I have not been able to investigate this point personally. Mr. Oldfield Thomas tells me that no adequate material for study as yet exists at the Natural History Museum. In the absence of a fresh series, we are thrown back upon the conclusions of Blasius, who investigated the subject some years ago. The skins which he examined had been obtained from different parts of Europe. Their study induced him to believe that we should recog- nise three distinct races of the brown hare. Of these, STUDIES IN HARE LTFE the form with which Englishmen are least acquainted is the hare of North-east Europe. This animal pos- sesses fur of a thick texture, and shows a tendency to become white in winter, a circumstance which might be expected to enhance the chance of its escaping from its enemies during severe weather, such as is often experienced in Russia. The central race, which includes our English hare, is characterised by the possession of fur of moderate texture. It shows a disposition to become grey in winter. To find the third race of brown hare recognised by the German specialist just quoted it is necessary to go to the extreme south of Europe. This hare of the Mediter- ranean sub-region differs from the animal we know so well at home in the relative thinness of its pelage. Its ears are but scantily clothed with fur. It is a redder animal than our hare. Mr. Abel Chapman says that it is more brindled in colour than our insular form. Another point of distinction lies in the inferior size of the Mediterranean hare. Sportsmen are always interested in the weight of game. The average weight of a hare often serves as a topic for conversation in the gunroom. A full- grown animal in good condition generally turns the scales at seven or eight pounds. Plenty of hares weigh nine and ten pounds, but it is a very big hare NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE indeed that reaches eleven pounds. Enormous hares have been killed in rare instances. By this I mean to say that individual hares have undoubtedly scaled between thirteen and fourteen pounds. But these were over-fed monsters, which had glutted their carcases to repletion. Now the Mediterranean hare only averages from five to six pounds when full grown. It is, therefore, obviously inferior in bulk to the typical animal. I have not been able to obtain the weights of any Russian hares. Those which are killed in Central Europe appear to be about the same size as our own hares. Professor Fatio, for instance, writes that in Switzerland the brown hares average from eight to ten pounds apiece. He has known of larger specimens. Some of them weighed as much as twelve pounds, but these, of course, were remarkable. The weight of the hare, like that of almost any animal, depends a good deal on the season of the year, and on the relative abun- dance or paucity of food. It is generally held to be in the finest condition in late autumn and early winter. Nature has ordained that the hare should become fat and well nourished in the fall of the year, in order that it may be the better fitted to endure the hardships and privations to which it is exposed in the depth of winter. Nevertheless, some hares are in STUDIES IN HARE LIFE prime condition in the summer months. One would imagine that the brown hare should thrive well on the fat pastures of the north of Ireland ; perhaps the fact that the Irish hare already holds the field may be adverse to the successful naturalisation of the former animal. The brown hare has no incapacity for adapt- ing its life to altered conditions. To my mind, the success which has attended the introduction of the , brown hare into New Zealand is a very remarkable fact. Who would have imagined that hares would ever become numerous enough in our distant colony to render the exportation of their skins to the mother country a profitable undertaking ? Perhaps Irish sportsmen are contented to possess the varying hare, and have no ambition to see the finer animal natu- ralised in their distressful country. Mr. Barrett Hamilton, who is making a special study of the quad- rupeds of Ireland, has been good enough to inform me that some isolated attempts have been made to establish the brown hare in his own country. He says that the experiments that have been made have so far proved disappointing. The brown hare cer- tainly manages to exist in certain private parks in Ireland, but it has not so far succeeded in extending its range in that island as a truly wild animal. Though absent from Ireland as an indigenous mammal, the NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE brown hare has long been plentiful on the mainland of Scotland. Many parts of Northern Britain are covered with waste moorlands, too sterile and barren to afford a happy home to the bonny brown hare, which has no taste for dry lichens and -plain Highland fare, but prefers to munch sweet clover in the fattest pastures of the low grounds. It was not indigenous to any of the Hebrides, nor probably to the Orkneys or Shetlands. The first attempt to populate the Hebrides with brown hares was made by Lord Sea- forth. About a hundred years ago that nobleman introduced some brown hares to the Lews. But his example was not followed by any of his neighbours. It was not until the middle of the present century that hares were introduced into Skye and othei neighbouring islands. The actual result has fully justified the pains bestowed upon their introduction, and the species thrives admirably in sheltered situa- tions. It is, therefore, quite certain that the climatic conditions prevailing on the West coast of Scotland are on the whole favourable to this animal. As regards Orkney, it would appear to be certain that the brown hare was long ago turned down upon the Island of Hoy before, in fact, it had been carried to the Lews but the first experiment does not seem to have met with the success that it merited. Messrs. Buckley STUDIES IN HARE LIFE and Harvie Brown report that there are brown hares on several of the northern isles, viz. upon Hoy, Eday, Rousay, Shapmsay, the Mainland, and on South Ronaldshay. The hare was introduced to the last-named island by Lord Zetland. There used to be some hares in Papa* Westray, but the animals have been exterminated by the natives. Mr. Moodie-Heddle considers that some of the brown hares which are killed in Orkney bear an external resemblance to the blue hare in her summer pelage. The hares in question appear to be darker than the hares of the Scottish mainland, and lack the rich reddish-brown tint of the parent race. In Sutherlandshire, Caithness, and some other Scottish counties the brown hare occurs most frequently in the fertile straths and upon the alluvial plains, seldom evincing any desire to wander very far from the borders of the cultivated regions, in which she prefers to make a permanent residence. But the elevation to which the brown hare voluntarily ascends in this country still requires to be investigated. In the North of England the brown hare rambles all over the fells at her sweet will. Country folk will tell you that the hare which is bred upon the pastures of the mountain- side is a larger-boned animal than her sister of the valley. If there is any truth in this tradition, the io NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE brown hare of the hills is presumably learning to adapt herself to the altered conditions of her existence, which no doubt entails greater exertion than is neces- sary to the hare which makes its home in the hayfields of the wooded manor. Dr. Fatio has ascertained that the brown hare of the Swiss valleys ranges upon the slopes of the Alpine pastures up to an elevation of 1,600 or 1,700 metres. In the Grisons, Professor Theobald killed a brown hare at a greater elevation still, viz. at a height of 2,270 metres above the sea. We must all have met with the bonnie brown hare in a great variety of situations, from the Kentish and Essex salt marshes to the wolds of Yorkshire and the coalfields of Lancashire. A great change has taken place in the number of hares that are annually bred in England. Go where you may, one meets almost universally with the same lament, that where you would formerly have seen twenty or thirty hares feeding in the fields on a summer evening you will now hardly see a single animal. This melancholy state of things seems to have been brought about mainly by the mis- chievous and uncalled-for legislation of Sir William Harcourt. There are other factors which may or may not press hardly upon the hare. One obvious point is that hares and rabbits do not thrive very STUDIES IN HARE LIFE II well together. The smaller animal defiles the hare's pasturage, for the hare is a fastidious feeder, and will not willingly feed where rabbits have been. The rabbit is as audacious as it is erotic, and has no fear of the hare, which it often bullies and hounds off its favourite grounds. I feel little or no doubt that in some cases the disappearance of the hare is due to the hostility of the rabbit. Another and more important condition to be con- sidered in determining the number of hares is the presence or absence of disease. I have not found the brown hare to be as susceptible either to wet or to diseases born of hunger as the rabbit un- doubtedly is. Certainly rumours of English hares dying from lung disease reached me from an estate in the North of England a few years ago ; but I had no opportunity of ascertaining whether the complaint was well founded or not. That the hare is peculiarly liable to a species of consumption, however, there can be no doubt, because it has been proved up to the hilt. Thus, in the autumn of 1882, a great many hares died in the district of Eisvold, in Norway. The cause of the deaths of these animals was inquired into by Pro- fessor Heiberg, of Christiania. His researches resulted in the discovery that the air passages and pulmonary substance of the deceased animals were charged with 12 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE a form of Strongylus, both barren and charged with ova. 1 Still more recently this important matter has been explored by an eminent French pathologist, M. Megnin. This gentleman was induced to turn his attention to the question in consequence of the out- break of a severe epidemic among brown hares in Alsace. Subsequently he read a paper on the subject before the Paris Biological Society, in which he dia- gnosed this leporine disorder as a parasitic disease, a sort of pulmonary tuberculosis, in fact. It was due to the presence of Strongylus commutatus in the lungs of the affected animals. 2 It is said that a great many hares succumbed to the ravages of the same disease in Thuringia, in the year 1864. That such a conta- gious disease may in a large measure account for the scarcity of hares is perfectly true. If the fact that the hare is subject to a malady like this was more widely known, perhaps we should often hear of some- what similar outbreaks. The best remedy for such a disaster would, I imagine, be to destroy all affected animals, and, after a time, to introduce an entirely new strain of blood into the district. We know very little about the diseases from which wild animals suffer. In confinement their maladies are connected more 1 Nature, vol. xxix. p. 18. 2 Zoologist, 1887, p. 424. STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 13 or less with improper feeding and want of adequate exercise and fresh air ; and these disorders can be overcome by patience and trouble. But I never yet met anyone who had devoted special attention to the investigation of the diseases which affect our smaller wild animals. The topic seems to suggest fresh fields for skilled research. This is only one, however, of the many bypaths to be followed by the votaries of science. Very few of us have adequate opportunities of con- ducting such serious experiments as those just sug- gested ; but we can all of us find an unlimited source of amusement in studying the natural traits of wild animals. There may not be much of importance to discover in the habits of the hare. Yet I question whether anyone could devote a few weeks to patient observation of a single species of quadruped without obtaining a corresponding amount of pleasure. Men often neglect to study the habits of the birds or beasts which live around them, simply because, they say, * they are so common.' Almost every bird or beast is common somewhere ; but its abundance or scarcity is of minor importance to the true naturalist. What he aims at is to catch the spirit of the woods, to watch silently every movement of the woodpecker that is boring in the old timber, to catch the sibilant cry I 4 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE of the crested tit, or to follow the graceful movements of the squirrels as they playfully chase their fellows through the green leaves. If we try to study nature unaffectedly, and start with a wholesome knowledge of our own crass ignorance, we can find plenty of diversion even in working out the habits of such a familiar beast as the brown hare. Although popularly supposed to live exclusively under an open sky, the hare has a strong partiality for the vicinity of covert, to which she often repairs for shelter at the break of day. The wild, free life of the woods is entirely to the taste of the hare. She likes to bound joyously along, unimpeded by the fear of impending disaster ; for at the best she is a shy and timid creature, little able to protect her delicate frame from the onslaught of ancestral foes. The amorous character of the hare is well marked. The male sex is generally in numeri- cal excess ; to this circumstance are due the blood- less conflicts in which jack hares are accustomed to engage at the beginning of the mating time. The males fight with their feet, and make the down of their opponents fly freely. They are especially in- terested in the duties of reproduction during the month of March, at which time they are unusually playful and full of antics ; hence the proverb, ' As mad as a March hare.' Practical men are not agreed as STUDIES IN HAKE LIFE 15 to the number of leverets produced by the hare in the year. A friend of mine, who has opened a great many doe hares, assures me that only a single leveret is usually produced at a birth. Others consider that it is only young female hares of the year that drop single young ones ; and they contend that old hares drop two or three leverets not uncommonly. Five is, apparently, the maximum of leverets ever dropped by English hares ; but the reproduction of a greater number is not impossible. The rates at which most wild animals and birds increase seem to be governed in the main by their relative food supplies. These, taken together with the difficulties which such individuals have had to over- come, before they succeeded in propagating their own kind, enable us to anticipate, however imperfectly, their probable numbers. Colonel Fielden found that the Polar hare produces no fewer than eight young ones. This remarkable circumstance may be explained by the relatively abundant supply of food during a brief Arctic summer. A stern necessity also exists that many individuals should enter the world, since the young leverets are eagerly sought after by their natural enemy, the Arctic fox. But be this as it may, our English hare is usually satisfied to multiply her race on a more modest scale. The doe, if adult, 1 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE reproduces young two or three times in a season, generally dropping a single young one, but often two, and sometimes three. Young doe hares which enter the world in March seem to reproduce young in the following July or August. Those which are born in late autumn give birth to young ones only in the following year ; at least, such is my belief, but it is difficult to lay down any hard-and-fast rules as to the gestation of wild animals. The subject is exceedingly obscure and has not been fully venti- lated. Even if wild animals reproduce their own kind in confinement (which they often persistently fail to do), it would still be doubtful if the gestation of the females kept under artificial conditions could be relied upon to correspond in all particulars with the similar period passed in a state of absolute freedom. Bell says that in mild winters young hares have been found in January. A few leverets are undoubtedly dropped in February, especially after those open winters which encourage the old ones to couple early. Some people consider it unusual to find leverets in March. Mr. Algernon E. Perkins recorded in the Fields nest of five young leverets which his keeper found in Norfolk on April 25. Mr. Richard Rice wrote from Berkshire, to say that he saw a dead leveret in a sheep pen on March 8. . It had been killed by cold .weather.; snow STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 17 was lying on the ground at the time. Mr. J. G. Cornish volunteered his experience that many leverets of the size of full-grown rabbits are to be seen in Dorsetshire in the middle of April. 'Even in exposed down-country,' he says, ' they are frequently born before March i. The second week in March is the time when we generally expect to find them ; but in mild winters I have known of does in young at the beginning of January. With regard to the number of leverets in a litter, there is a curious belief among the countrymen in Berks and Wilts. If a leveret has a white star on its forehead, it is certain to be one of a litter of four, they say.' l Another correspondent (T. W. P.) wrote to express his belief that ' the white spot on the forehead of a leveret indicates a buck. I have examined many hares and leverets with regard to this small spot, and have never found one on a doe, and have never seen a buck without one. I have only once known a litter of five leverets. They were a very fine litter, and could be seen almost every evening about the same spot following the doe, and by the first week in May they were nearly as large as she was. My opinion is that (in Lincolnshire) most of the early leverets breed in July and August, but these late 1 Field, May 14, 1892. i8 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE leverets do not breed nearly so fast as those kittled in March, April, and May.' 1 Here I may observe thaj the hare makes her nest in a tuft of grass or rough herbage, carefully concealed from prying eyes by the stems which she is artful enough to pull over it. It is frequently placed in a pas- ture field, and almost always in a dry situation, often on a knoll of ground slightly elevated above the level of the rest of the field. The doe is a good parent, but she does not usually suckle her young by day, pre- ferring to nurse the tiny leverets under cover of dark- ness. These latter are fairly hardy and can be reared by hand without difficulty. The domestic cat is some- times used as a foster-mother for leverets. 'When shooting in Hampshire on the 151)1 September,' writes Mr. Wm. Houghton. I killed a doe hare out of a small piece of turnips, and shortly afterwards found near the same spot three small leverets. Wishing to save their lives, I enquired in the neighbourhood for a cat with kittens, and soon after found one with four, about the same age as the leverets I should say about a week old. Removing three of the kittens, I substi- tuted the young hares, which the cat has taken to kindly, and when I left a few days after they were getting on nicely. Having understood that if more ' Field, May 28, 1892. STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 19 than two leverets are produced at a birth, one of them is always marked with a spot or stripe of white in the forehead, I examined those I found, and one of them was distinctly so marked.' l Shy and timid as the hare must undoubtedly be admitted to be in the generality of cases, yet when her young are in danger she will willingly show a de- termined defence, and fight pluckily in their behalf. A notable instance of this was reported by Mr. John Wilkes : 1 On September 13,' wrices this observer, 'as I sat in my rough-built straw hut waiting to shoot wood- pigeons in the fast fading twilight, all at once I was startled by the cry of a leveret among the nettles and long grass not many yards distant. Springing to my feet, I ran with my spaniel to the spot, where I had but just time to see a weasel run from the leveret, and disappear among the long grass and nettles, where my spaniel failed to catch it ; but I had hardly time to pick up the little thing, which had blood flowing from behind its ears, before a full-grown hare came rushing through the copse, and dashed up to within two yards of me and my excited spaniel (which was beating round me after the weasel), and ran round us snorting in defiance, and every time the 1 Field, Sept. 28, 1878. C 2 20 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE leveret (which I held in my hand) cried out, the old hare (which was evidently its mother) rushed up to us snorting as if it would attack us, and remained near all the time we hunted for the weasel, which I am sorry to say escaped us that night. The old hare once, in her boldness, to defend her young, ran up within a few inches of the dog's nose.' l Practical men always assure me that the doe hare lives a solitary life, except in the season of love. The charge of the leverets, which are born with open eyes, depends entirely upon the female parent. They say also that it is a mistake to keep as many jack hares as does on a farm, because the superabundant males fight viciously, and one buck will amply suffice to pair with half a dozen does. Some people maintain also that they can distinguish the sexes of hares by the way in which the animals carry their ears. The female allows her ears to fall back (as they do while she rests in her form) when fleeing from her enemies. The male animal carries one of his ears partly raised as he races away. I cannot vouch for the truth of this belief; but it is prevalent among poachers who depend upon hare catching for their subsist- ence, and are therefore fairly well acquainted with the actions of the animal they persecute. My 1 Field, Sept. 22, 1892. STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 21 own impression is that the jack hare consorts to a certain extent with his female partner or partners, and that he takes some interest in the welfare of the leverets which have derived their existence from his erotic propensities. This view receives a certain amount of independent corroboration from another source. ' On September 2 last,' writes Mr. Thomas Wolferstan, ' my brother and I were shooting in North Cornwall, and were trying a large uncultivated close, of between twenty and thirty acres in size, in search of some birds, which we had just before flushed. I was at a distance of some 200 or 250 yards from my brother, when he picked out a hare, and let it go away, apparently unhurt. The hare made for the only gateway, which was some 100 yards from me, and the whole length of the close from the hare, but in a different direction. I ran towards the gate, and got within fifty yards of the hare when it was nearing the gateway. I shot at it, but without effect, and the hare ran nearly to the gateway, then turning sharp round faced me and came right back, making for the hedge behind me, where, however, I could see no place for it to break. As it passed me I fired my second barrel and killed it. My brother and I were both at a loss to know what had caused the hare to turn and face the gun 22 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE instead of getting away through the gateway, which was entirely open in every way. When we passed through the gateway, and had gone but ten or twelve yards, my brother put his foot almost on another hare, and when she went away killed her. He then found that his foot was resting on three leverets not bigger than rats, and it was evident that the first hare, being the jack, had shirked the gateway so as not to run over the doe in her form. We had dogs with us, but they did not chase, although probably the hare might have expected they would. I may add that, so far as we could see, there was no other means of exit from the first close but the gate- way, it being surrounded, except in that one place, with an unusually high fence and ditch on either side.' l Apropos of leverets, I may remark that the hare makes a very delightful pet, provided it be captured young and treated with judicious kindness. Every- one knows the story of the poet Cowper's hares, but they were in no sense singular. Many hares had been domesticated before Cowper tamed his pets, the results varying according to the disposition of the individual animal, and the respective pains bestowed upon its education. Some years ago my friends 1 Zoologist, 1883, p. 75. STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 23 Messrs. Mann of Aigle Gill reared a tiny leveret, which had been caught on their farm while still too young to feed itself. It was nursed and tenderly cared for. In the course of time it grew up and became a favoured member of the household, the recipient of many herbs and other delicate and toothsome tit-bits. This creature was very quiet and retiring in its habits during the hours of daylight ; but, with the arrival of the gloaming, it threw aside its reserve, and became as captivating a plaything as a man could desire. My friends tell me that as long as they kept this hare (a period of about two years) they could generally foretell the weather of the following day, from the actions of their favourite. The creature be- came extremely lively and restless before a change of weather, and was evidently highly susceptible to atmospheric conditions. If she was unusually frolic- some and uneasy, the weather was sure to undergo a marked change. I am not aware that this fact had been recorded previously to the present notification of its existence. In the summertime this doe hare for it proved to be a doe was kept in a little hutch placed just outside the house. My friends used to lean out of their windows in the deep stillness of night, to listen to their captive calling softly to the free jack hare which came to visit her, but always 24 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE paused on the brow of the hill just above the house. These creatures used to call to one another in low and plaintive tones, but it was always quite easy to hear the wild fellow responding to the plaintive over- tures of the prisoner. Eventually, he may have won her affections, for she escaped from confinement, and, taking to the fields, reverted to a wild life. On one occasion she was recognised and nearly recaptured ; but freedom was sweet and she wisely made the most of it. I am assured that the old doe hare usually calls to her leverets, in a way similar to that just described, when she desires to suckle them ; but I cannot at present vouch for the accuracy of this from personal knowledge. Certainly an old hare will always answer the cry of a leveret that squeals in fear or pain ; but that is of course entirely another matter. I once saw a hare that lived in a happy family, so- called, together with a kite, several cats, and some small birds and quadrupeds. Tame hares generally fraternise with the dogs of the house in which they live. Mr. C. Wapshore tells me that Mr. Brooker of Winterbourne reared a tiny leveret, which he found in the month of August 1890. He trained it to sit up at his command, holding a small stick in its mouth, but its favourite performance was to beat a tambourine, an accomplishment shared by another STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 25 hare known to me. Indoors, Mr. Brooker's hare fraternised fearlessly with three dogs a collie, a Skye terrier, and a spaniel and cultivated in addition a friendship with the family cat. The hare loved to jump over the backs of his playmates, and would play the tambourine sitting on the collie. Eventually, Mr. Brooker found it convenient to part with his accom- plished hare. The animal changed hands for the handsome consideration of five guineas. 26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE CHAPTER II PAGES OF HARE LORE FOR the first few weeks of their existence leverets follow their female parent. Under her careful tutelage they soon learn to crop their favourite clover and to ramble in search of fields of growing carrots. But the love of independence is common to leverets as to most other young creatures. In fact, no sooner do the little fellows find that they can trust to their own powers of wind and limb, than they shake off parental restraint, and roam through the hay fields in search of young loves and fresh adventures. Eventually every individual becomes an anchorite. She makes her form in a snug and quiet corner ; to it she returns repeatedly, until tired of its monotony. Life is easy and pleasant during the summer months. At first she browses upon sweet clover and tender shoots of herbage. As the corn springs up in the fields, the hare repairs to the standing oats ; nor does she hesi- tate to risk the safety of her neck in following the PAGES OF HARE LORE 27 runs which she makes through the midst of the ripen- ing crops. After the corn has been carried, the hare frequents the stubbles, or seeks provender in the turnip fields. Prudent farmers, knowing that the hare prefers swedes to any other root crop, used to drill in a few rows of swedes on purpose for the benefit of Puss. The Ground Game Act has latterly super- seded such kindly offices. As winter advances the hare feeds more and more upon the turnips, but she does not spoil them like the rabbit, but is content to con- sume the root which she has selected to afford her repast. If the weather becomes very severe, many of the hares browse upon the tops and sprouts of young whins. Others gather together in kitchen gardens and fill their bellies with cabbages. If hard pressed, they will eat a variety of substances which they would not touch in a season of plenty. In the pride of their summer strength, the fine brown rascals delight to steal into the flower gardens and devour the carnations, to the annoyance of the gardeners. In hard weather the poor beasts are driven to eat such indigestible substances as the berries of the common holly. Mr. R. Mann assures me that when pressed by hunger the hares of his district repair to the spots where the plant called ' Rest Harrow ' grows. Scraping away the snow, they devour the leaves of the flower. Else- 28 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE where they draw into the neighbourhood of stackyards and nibble at the haystacks. If any turnips have been left uncovered you are pretty sure to find in the morning that the hare has found them out, and taken sly advantage of its opportunity. More serious loss is caused in the wintertime by the hare's propensity for gnawing the bark of young trees. The loss in nursery gardens, w r here valuable pines are grown, is often very considerable. One of the best methods of averting probable mischief that have been suggested is to place virgin cork round the stems of the young trees, taking care to secure it with wires in such a way that the attacks of hares and rabbits will be rendered ineffectual. These animals can fast for several days at a time without injury. They are usually in the very finest condition at the beginning of winter, so that they can afford to undergo some waste of adipose tissue without experiencing serious suffering. If a heavy fall of snow happens to sweep across the country, the hare often submits to be buried where it lies, right out in the open field. Only a tiny hole in the snow is kept open by the warm breath of the animal. Its imprisonment may last five or six days without harm to the little quadruped ; but the majority of hares seek shelter in the woods and spin- neys during periods of specially protracted frost. They PAGES OF HARE LORE 29 do not ascend the hillside, as sheep would try to do under similar circumstances ; they either lie in their forms as described, or pick their way about the skirts of the preserves. As long as the snow is soft and treacherous, it is dangerous for the hare to abandon the shelter of her favourite cover in order to forage for food out in the open fields. I must not omit to notice the fact that when fresh snow has fallen a hare is easily tracked by the imprints of her feet. Countryfolk have always entertained a weakness for this variety of sport. It is a little sur- prising that it should ever have been thought necessary to declare it illegal in our mild climate. The fact is that the hare can bound with great ease and speed over the surface of frozen snow. It sinks easily, how- ever, into soft snow, and cannot readily make good its escape from a fast dog ; the latter, being more powerful than the hare, finds less difficulty in plough- ing its way through the yielding substance. In view of the class distinctions already discussed, it is inter- esting to notice that Henry VIII. allowed no one, whatever his station in life or estate, to trace, destroy, or kill any hare in the snow with any dog, bitch, bow, or otherwise. * And the sessions or leet may enquire thereof; and after inquisition found, they shall for every hare so killed, cess upon every offender 6s. &/., 30 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE to be forfeited to the King, if in the sessions ; and to the lord of the leet, if in the leet.' But the popularity of the amusement seems in time to have rendered the statute a dead letter. James I. adopted more stringent measures, ordering that an offender should be committed to the common gaol for six months, unless he paid the churchwardens for the use of the poor 2 os. for every hare which he had traced and killed in the snow. Dr. Shufeldt, the American ornithologist, made some valuable observations upon the leaping powers of hares in New Mexico. ' While rambling,' he says, 1 in the wintertime over the snow-covered plains in this region, I have recently interested myself in ascertaining how far, on a level surface, a hare or rabbit may leap at each spring, at a time when either of these animals is put to its best speed. Two species of Lepus are quite abundant in this vicinity, viz. the Mexican hare (Z. callotis callotis), and the sage hare, which is really a medium-sized rabbit ( L. sylvaticus Nuttalt), while the first mentioned is a big hare. It is not uncommon to find here, in certain localities, a stretch of perfectly level prairie, extending for a dis- tance of three or four miles, and when this is covered by an even layer of one inch or more of snow, it offers an admirable surface on which to take account of the PAGES OF HARE LORE 31 distance which may separate any two tracks of one of these animals, either one made by a hare, or one made by one of the rabbits. On such a prairie as I have just referred to I have, on numerous occasions, fired at these animals when they have been running, and at the same time beyond the range of my fowling- piece ; such a shot almost invariably has the effect of so alarming the game as to make it run at its very best rate of speed, and, upon coming up with the tracks they have left on the snow at such times, I have been surprised at the distances they can clear at each individual leap. Under these conditions I once measured the spaces cleared by an old Mexican hare, and found the first two equalled twelve feet a piece, while the third effort was rather more than thirteen feet, and I have never known this species to exceed this, although I have tested not a few of them. Of course the rabbit cannot compete with such magnificent gymnastics as this : it will, however, when thus frightened, make leaps of fully six feet ; and on one occasion I measured one on the dead-level prairie which was rather more than seven feet. At their common rate of going the hare rarely clears more than four feet at any single leap, while the rabbit is satisfied with rather more than two feet, and when quietly feeding about the sage-brush the tracks made by an 32 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE individual of either species may actually overlap each other. 1 ' Mr. Barrett Hamilton measured the successive leaps of an Irish hare while chased by a dachshund, and found them to consist of the following distances measured in inches 190, 46, 90, 45, 86, 42, 62, 44, 86, 47, 60, 120. 'The snow being hard and frozen at the top, the animal did not sink into it, but left two slight but clearly recognisable footmarks on its surface after each leap. The measurements were made from one pair of marks on the snow to the next pair, and not, as in the following measurements, from one mark made by a hind foot to the next made by a hind foot. They are rough, but are probably accurate to within an inch or two. The largest leap, ten feet, will compare very favourably with the measurements given by Dr. Shufeldt of the leaps of the American hare, which he describes as a " big hare," and therefore likely to make a longer leap than our own. Probably the hare whose leap I measured would have added another foot to her best efforts if she had had a brace of greyhounds at her heels. I found that the length of the leaps taken by a hare, when merely wandering about, was close on thirty inches from the mark made by one hind foot to the next one made by that foot, or 1 Zoologist, 1888; p. 259. PAGES OF HARE LOR& 33 much less if measured from a fore-foot mark to the next hind-foot mark. This was also about the length of the dog's leap. The alternate nature of the leaps is interesting to notice, long and short leaps seeming to follow each other in regular succession.' l The force with which a hare runs depends, I fancy, a good deal upon whether it is out in the centre of a field or is approaching a gateway. Unless pur- sued, it reduces its pace as it approaches an exit from the field. Mr. Miller Christy cites a curious collision between two hares : * During a day's shooting on my uncle's land at Boynton Hall, near Chelmsford, about the middle of December, a hare came by its death in a most extraordinary way. Two hares were put up together from a field. Both ran back and tried to pass the beaters, but, being shouted at, became ap- parently confused, and ran straight at one another without looking. The result was a collision, after which one hare fell over, and its neck was found to be broken. The occurrence was witnessed by my uncle's keeper and several of the beaters, but I believe none of the guns saw it. I have heard of a case in which a coursed hare killed itself by running against a clod of earth, but never before have I heard of such an instance as the foregoing.' 2 A fact which I have 1 Zoologist^ 1891, p. 60, 2 Ibid. 1883, p. 75. D 34 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE mentioned once already, but which always strikes me as being curious, is the dislike which hares manifest towards rabbits. Perhaps I should rather say the animosity which rabbits display towards hares ; for, singularly enough, the smaller animals are sufficiently bold to drive the hares before them. This can easily be verified by observation in the early hours of the day, in any place where both species happen to be numerous. The hare is essentially a fastidious animal. . Like the sheep, it refuses to graze on grass lands which rabbits have defiled. The hare loves to feed on the tender shoots of the young barley when it is only about a foot above the ground, which is of course in the month of March. St. John thought that the human eye had a fascinating power over the hare. ' As long as you keep your eye fixed on that of the hare, and approach her from the front, she appears afraid to move, and, indeed, will sometimes allow herself to be taken up by the hand. A hare, when dogs are near her, is particularly unwilling to start from her form. In cover shooting many of the old and experienced hares steal off quietly the moment they hear the sound of dogs or beaters at one end of the wood ; and thus their quick senses of hearing and smelling enable them to escape PAGES OF HARE LORE 35 the guns, however numerous and however well placed.' l St. John mentions how he slept one night at a shepherd's house in the hills. ' During almost all the night the dogs of the place were barking and yelping at my deerhound, entirely preventing me from sleeping. I was the first person up, and on going out I started a hare that had made her form up against the turf wall of the cottage, undeterred by the constant noise of dogs that had gone on during all the night.' The hare is associated with some interesting traditions of folklore, both in the Highlands and else- where. Mr. P. M. C. Kermode writes that the Manx equivalent of the proverb ' Birds of a feather flock together' is ' Furree yn mwaagh risk e heshey' i.e. 'The hare will be found with his mate.' It is the object of superstition and a favourite form to be assumed by a witch. The son of a witch, who himself dabbled in the black art, was known as c Gaaue mwaagh] ' The hare-smith.' He adds that the natives of the Isle of Man never think of eating hares. It would be interesting to hear if there is any other district in which a similar prejudice may happen to survive. To return to our discussion about the habits 1 Natural History and Sport in Moray, p, 292. D 2 36 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE of hares, I would draw attention to a fact which does not seem to be generally recognised, that the hare is an excellent swimmer, and is quite at home in either fresh or salt water. Not that it likes to enter either element. As a rule hares avoid wetting their fur. If they find themselves obliged to cross a stream in shifting their feeding grounds, they generally search out the narrowest ford, even though the water to be crossed should consist only of a small burn or fellside beck. But it is exceptions that enforce the rule. For example, a hare has been seen to swim the river Elbe in a long reach, where the river is at least 180 yards broad. This involved her swimming more than eighty yards through very rough water. ' 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. Jacques du Fouillouse has seen hares swim successively through two or three ponds of which the smallest was eighty paces round.' * Yarrell has placed on record an experience of the swimming 1 Loudoun's Magazine of Natural History, vol. iv. p. 143. PAGES OF HARE LORE 37 powers of the hare, which may now be considered classical ' A harbour of great extent on our northern coast has an island near the middle of considerable size, the nearest point of which is a mile distant from the mainland at high water, and with which point there is frequent communication by a ferry. Early one morning in spring two hares were observed to come down from the hills of the mainland towards the seaside ; one of which from time to time left its com- panion, and proceeding to the edge of the water, stopped there a minute or two, and then returned to its mate. The tide was rising, and after waiting some time, one of them, exactly at high water, took to the sea and swam rapidly over, in a straight line, to the opposite projecting point of land. The observer on this occasion, who was near the spot, but re- mained unperceived by the hares, had no doubt they were of different sexes, and that it was the male which swam across the water, as he had probably done many times before. It was remarkable that the hares had remained on the shore nearly half an hour ; one of them occasionally examining, as it would seem, the state of the current, and ultimately taking to the sea at that precise period of the tide called slack water, when the passage across could be effected without being carried by the force of the stream either above 38 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE or below the desired point of landing. The other hare then cantered back to the hills.' } Mr. G. H. Kinahan mentions an instance, which came under his own personal knowledge, of an Irish hare voluntarily choosing to rear her three leverets upon an island in a lake in Galway. The islet was only thirty yards in diameter, and distant about 100 yards from the shore. The hare apparently passed the day on the hill and swam the ford at night to revisit her progeny. 'E. H.,' a correspondent of Nature, furnishes a brief note showing how much at home in the water a hare may be : ' I was by the little river Arun below the old mill at Pulborough one day, when I saw a hare quietly cantering down the opposite field towards the river. A bank hid the actual crossing from me ; but when the hare emerged from the water into the field in which I was standing, I was amused to see the dog-like fashion in which it stood and shook off the moisture, scattering the spray far and wide before re- suming its leisurely canter. The act had the air of being habitual.' 2 Mr. G. Plarr reported to the same periodical how he saw a hare take to the water to elude its pursuers, which it did with perfect success, continuing its hurried flight as soon as it gained the 1 Loudoun's Magazine of 'Natural History ', vol. v. p. 99. 2 Nature, vol. xxxix. p. 306. PAGES OF HARE LORE 39 further river bank, without stopping to shake its dripping coat. The creature while swimming pre- sented a somewhat strange and unwonted appear- ance, its head seeming to be large out of all propor- tion to the size of the body. This illusion was due of course to the fact of the head being kept above water, and therefore dry, while the rest of the body was submerged. In December 1888 a brown hare was seen one day to cross the marsh at Dumbarton in the direction of the river Leven. She arrived upon the embank- ment at the moment when a man also reached the embankment. Unwilling to retrace her steps across the marsh, the hare boldly took to the water and began to cross. Unluckily when she reached the distant bank, she found her escape cut off by another enemy. Apprehending the danger, she turned and made again for the point she had recently left, and succeeded in accomplishing the swim home, but only to fall into the hands of her first enemy. 1 Mr. J. Beaumont witnessed an interesting instance of a hare taking to the sea, when pressed by grey- hounds. 'In October 1887,' he says, 'I was a member of a shooting party, staying near Auchen- cairn on the Kirkcudbrightshire coast, where for vol. xxxviii. p. 209. 40 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE miles the waves of the Solway beat on red sandstone cliffs, broken here and there by small bays, where the burns run down to the sea through little glens. One day I had left the others, and was standing among the seaweed-covered boulders of such a bay, when the sounds of a course reached me from a hillside a quarter of a mile or more away, and presently I saw the hare and greyhounds coming down to the shore ; they ran close past where I was standing, and then, to my astonishment, the hare deliberately entered the water and swam out to sea. I could not persuade the greyhounds to follow, though one was so close that, if she had done so at once, she could have caught the hare without swimming, as the latter was out of her depth directly, and swam very slowly. The sun was shining very bright on the water, and it soon became very difficult to keep the hare in sight, as her head only showed now and then on the top of a wave, and about a hundred yards from the shore I saw her for the last time, though I stayed about the place a long time. This hare was perhaps hard pressed ; still I could see no reason why she should not have run along the shore to the marsh dyke, which was close to, and where she would probably have made good her escape.' l V feature, vol. xxxix. p. 270, PAGES OF HARE LORE 41 But hares have many perils to face on land as well as sea. It may be doubted whether the majority of sportsmen have obtained a correct conception of the quantity of game that annually perishes upon the railway lines which nowadays cut up many of the finest sporting estates in this country. All sorts of animals succumb by accident to the resources of civilisation. I have known a fine old dog otter to stray upon the metals, with fatal results. Water- rats are great sufferers, nor is this difficult to under- stand, since they inhabit the ditches upon both sides of the railway track, and often scuttle across the sleepers. In the neighbourhood of towns it is the domestic cat which perishes oftenest on the railway. Out in the open country hares and rabbits may be said to ' ring the changes.' It must not be supposed that feathered game is more fortunate than furred. Pheasants and partridges often strike the engines ; red grouse and black game meet with the same fate. Only the other day a railway man brought to me a delicately mottled nightjar, which had incontinently charged the engine of a passenger train, and that in broad daylight. But hares and rabbits are most to the tastes of railway officials. The drivers and firemen of goods trains have generally the best chance of annexing the game which perishes on the 42 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE railway. Platelayers get their share of such chance booty, and know well upon what parts of the line a search along the metals in the early morning will prove most profitable. Mr. A. T. Story reports the experience of a driver who used to run over one of the western lines threading a well-preserved country. 'Game was in abundance, and frequently coveys of birds were seen upon the line. One day, however, while going slowly up _a steep incline with a goods train, he astonished his mate by stepping down from his engine, getting over the fence into a field, and immediately afterwards returning with two live hares. As they were going up the incline he saw two hares fighting. When they do this they sit on their hind-quarters and go at it like two boxers. This they generally do in such a blind rage that they may be approached unnoticed. Our driver knew this, and so quietly went up to them and took first one and then the other by the scruff of the neck, as he put it, and then walked off with them to his engine.' ' The power of scent is well developed in hares, and doubtless assists the old doe in finding her young. Poachers often rub their hands with fresh 1 Strand Magazine, viii. p. 286. PAGES OF HARE LORE 43 hay for fear of communicating any odour to the snares which they set. More than forty years ago a Russian zoologist, Middendorf, drew the attention of naturalists to the fact of the brown hare of the low ground inter- breeding with the blue mountain hare, and producing fertile offspring. I do not know why this should not often take place. The blue hares keep to the tops of our moors all through the summer, it is true. In snowy weather they often descend to the low grounds, and it sometimes happens that a stray individual chooses to pass the following summer on the land to which she migrated in late autumn. An intelligent keeper in the service of Macleod of Macleod assures me that hares which he believes to be hybrids have been killed repeatedly on the shooting in his charge, and reports of others have reached me from different quarters. The blue hare is now com- mon, even in the lowlands of Scotland. Of course the chance of her hybridising with her brown or red neighbour becomes more considerable as her breeding range extends. Professor Fatio states that the brown hares which live among the Alps often come into contact with the blue hares of higher altitudes, and apparently the two species interbreed. The hybrids resemble both their 44 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE parents in the character of their pelage, but are in- ferior in size to pure-bred animals. The ears and the tails of such hybrids are constantly rather shorter than those of the common hare. Fatio has himself examined such animals ; they were procured in the Bernese Oberland and the Valais. Professor Theobald repeatedly received hybrid hares from the Oberhalb- stein, and even kept one of them alive for a consider- able period. This subject has not received its proper share of attention from Scottish naturalists ; but further research may prove, perhaps, that these blue and brown hares do, in some rare and exceptional instances, interbreed. Mr. Lumsden exhibited a supposed hybrid hare before the Glasgow Natural History Society. It had been shot in December 1876, near Dumbarton Moor, upon which blue hares had been turned out a few years previously. Mr. J. Cordeaux shot a similar animal in Perthshire in September of the same year. * This ex- ample, which he compared the same day with pure specimens of both species, exhibited very distinctly a mixture of the colours of both parents, that of the common hare predominating. It differed also, in some respects, from the mountain hare, being generally larger, with larger head, larger ears, and broader fore- head. The head keeper on this moor, an experienced PAGES OF HARE LORE 45 man, stated that there was no doubt whatever about the interbreeding of the two species, but that the progeny was infertile.' l I may, perhaps, take this opportunity to express the hope that, if a reader of these lines should happen to have the good luck to come across an apparently hybrid hare, he will send it to the Natural History Museum, so that its creden- tials may be fully investigated by a professed expert. The opinions of amateurs are seldom, if ever, con- sidered final in such difficult matters. But though sportsmen have not cared much to inquire whether hares interbreed, they are always interested in shooting a white or piebald hare. A true albino combines the characters of pink irides and pure white fur. Such a hare is seldom met with. The late Mr. J. Gatcombe saw a specimen in the Plymouth market in the year 1885. It was a leveret, not a full-grown animal, and had been captured in North Devon. White hares have often been met with upon the Continent, but the colours of their irides are seldom reported. Certainly the term albino should be applied to such animals as exhibit pink irides exclusively. Mr. A. D. Bartlett urges that the term ' semi-albino ' should attach to a white hare, or other animal, which has irides of the natural colour. Edward 1 Zoologist^ 1877, p. loi. 46 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE Blyth long ago suggested that leucotism was the best term that could be employed to designate a phase of abnormal whiteness unassociated with red irides, and it may well be doubted if his term can be improved. Some fifty years ago a beautiful white hare fre- quented Lowther Park in Westmoreland. It was, rationally enough, preserved for a time, but came to an untimely end nevertheless, being accidentally killed by a scythe. Three years afterwards a pure white leveret appeared in the same locality. Similar animals have been killed at one time or another in most parts of England. A pure white hare was killed in Lincoln- shire in September 1894. No fewer than three white hares were killed in Nottinghamshire in 1888. 'In October last,' says Mr. J. Whitaker, 'the Earl of Burford shot at Bestwood Park, near here, a full- grown white hare with eyes of a pale blue, so often seen in white varieties. A white leveret also was caught, soon after it had left the nest, in the previous April. Possibly they were both of the same litter. In December last a white hare was shot at Rufford, and it is very curious that these should have occurred in one year, especially as there are now so few hares left not one to twenty of former days. No white hare has occurred about here for forty years to my knowledge, though hares used to swarm all over these PAGES OF HARE LORE 47 parts.' l It is noteworthy that white and pied hares seem to be caught or killed almost invariably before attaining their mature growth, so that the possibilities of their transmitting their peculiar characters to de- scendants is frustrated. It would not be safe, how- ever, to conclude that white leverets of necessity retain their unnatural garb after reaching maturity. Changes in the colour of the pelage are naturally effected by a shedding of fur in the brown hare. Some years ago an old shepherd employed upon a Southdown farm found five white leverets a day or so old. He marked their ears with a pair of nippers, as if they had been sheep instead of hares. Some months later, a fine grey hare was shot in the same locality, which on examination proved to be one of the five ear-marked leverets, which had turned grey on reaching maturity. 2 A curious pied leveret was shot in Cumberland in 1884 by Mr. J. Parker. Its body was of the usual colour, but the forehead, muzzle, sides of the head and forefeet were all pure white. Another hare, presented to the Carlisle Museum with the last named, by Mr. Parker, has a curious appearance, being neither white nor brown, but a compromise between them. 1 Zoologist, 1889, p. 143. 2 Field, Oct. 5, 1878. 48 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE The hoary appearance of this hare is due to numerous white hairs which extend along the entire length of the animal, from the shoulders to the flanks. The markings of pied quadrupeds are often sym- metrically arranged, but Mr. Whitaker records a hare 1 which had the whole of one side from nose to rump pure white, and on the other side a patch of white as big as one's hand behind the shoulder.' This animal was killed in a wood in Nottinghamshire in the month of January. A pretty variety of the hare was killed upon the borders of Hants and Dorset in the autumn of 1889. Mr. Corbin states that it was a male, and not full- grown. ' The ordinary brown colour was replaced by silvery grey, darker on the back and paler beneath, interspersed with darker but white-tipped hairs, giving it a singularly grizzled appearance.' The rarest variety of colour in the hare is the pure black form. A list of the black hares that have been killed in Great Britain would be a very short one. One of the number was caught as a tiny leveret in Epping Forest, some thirty years ago, i.e. in June 1865 ; this was kept alive as a pet. Another black hare used to perambulate the North of England at one time, as a distinguished performer in a so-called ' Happy Family.' 49 CHAPTER III THE HARE AND THE LAWYERS AFTER the middle of August the daylight in the North of Scotland is sadly curtailed. The day seems only half spent when a certain stillness falls upon the landscape. In the near foreground a sudden glow of crimson light fires the hayfields into a ruddy blaze. The distant hills exchange the varied colours of the afternoon for a soft and delicate tone of iron grey. As I pen my thoughts in a beautiful Perth- shire glen (unwilling to turn my face homeward, in spite of the persistent attacks of swarms of black and angry midges) the hollows and fissures which line yon mural precipices become indistinct at first, then cease to be visible. The rugged outline of the heights which hem in the horizon alone remains unaltered. The black wood which crowns the rounded hill to the right is a famous deer forest. The pine-trees which grow upon the slopes of the hill stand out stiffly against a column of violet cloud ; they look for all E 50 NATURAL HIS7VRY OF THE HARE the world like an army of Highland warriors, ranged as it were shoulder to shoulder. A little further to the north their fellows start up irregularly against the skyline. Their desolation witnesses to the terrible force of the tornado which devastated that and many another goodly forest during the darkness of a winter night. The natural terraces which run parallel to one another on the nearer braes are red with heather, still retaining the pride of maturity. Swiftly as the rays of light are departing, I can just detect the touch of autumn in the dulled tone of the leaves that still cluster closely to the twigs of the roadway lime-tree. Suddenly my reverie is interrupted by the sharp crack of a farmer's gun. Instantly it travels across the water below, assuring me of the untimely sorrow which has overtaken the blue ' cushie doo ' at its own roost, its favourite try sting place. It is now that my favourite, the brown hare, awakes and rises from the form in which she has found repose since early morning. She sleeps, it is true, with open eyes ; but her dark irides are now lighted with intel- ligence. Brushing aside the handful of faded leaves which had fallen upon her soft coat, Puss proceeds to stretch her shapely limbs with all the easy grace peculiar to a wild animal. Refreshed and invigorated by her period of inaction, she proceeds to make a THE HARE AND THE LAWYERS 51 cautious reconnoitre at the edge of the plantation in which she has found a safe asylum. For a moment she halts as if undecided what course to adopt. To spring across the mossy bank which lies between the cover and the hayfield would only be the work of a few seconds ; but she dreads the enactment of a tragedy. Her timidity is short-lived. Hunger sharpens the appetite. Gathering boldness, she emerges from her retreat in one quick, nervous leap. Nor is she bound upon an uncertain course. Forthwith she steers her way to a cherished nook, where, once arrived, she may crop sweet grass and luscious clover to her heart's content, surrounded by her natural mates. Meantime she is content to steal noiselessly across the broad acres that divide her pastures from her still warm bed, watching furtively every gap and corner, anxious to reach the haven for which she has set out unnoticed by any of her enemies. Foumarts are now rare in most parts of the country. They feed upon frogs and small birds. Rabbits are acceptable to them, but I doubt if they kill many hares. Weasels and stoats are mischievous to young leverets, but a fox will stalk a hare of any size, though he is not particular how he fares, and will readily feed on a dead rat. In this country the larger birds of prey have become 52 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE rare. I doubt whether they ever killed many brown hares, even when they were numerous. The worst enemies of the hare are sheepdogs and half-wild cats. There is no more destructive animal to game than your house cat which has abandoned civilised habits and become a proscribed outlaw. You will not see her during the day, unless by accident. She is cunning enough to lie up in a big rabbit earth all day long. It is in the small hours of the night that she plays havoc with young leverets and other game. Sheepdogs are often self-willed and love to run down half-grown leverets. But two-footed poachers are the most dangerous enemies that the hare has to face. The desire to kill something exists in the mind of the civilised man no less than in that of the savage; The first Napoleon inherited in its crudest form the craving to destroy life. Although he was an in- different shot, he used to shoot out of his window at the tame storks and swans which the Empress kept as pets, solely because he wanted to kill something. Another substantial incitement to persecution may be found in the fact that game of any kind always commands a certain monetary consideration. * They have a proverb among them in Suffolk,' says Willughby : 'A Curlew, be she white or black, she carries twelve pence on her back.' THE HARE AND THE LAWYERS 53 Lord William Howard, the bold Baron of the Marches, was supplied with great quantities of game for his household at Naworth Castle ; the price which his steward paid was sixpence for an old hare and threepence for a leveret. At the present time a Scottish poacher can generally obtain half a crown for a good hare, and I am told that the price never falls below eighteenpence, even when hares are unsaleable in the shops. The Rev S. Dixon gives an amusing anecdote apropos of this, in a little work published more than forty years ago. A Welshman is introduced to a Norfolk birdcatcher, who proceeds to describe his experience of the rural police of the day. ' " One da', when I was here all alone arter some draw-waters [goldfinches], up come the rural, lookin' very knovvin'. ' I sa', bor,' ses he, ' I want a hare very bad ; can't yow happen o' one ? ' ' I don' know,' ses I, ' I'll see what I can du. Per'aps yow'll be here agin tp-morrer.' So away he walk, as if the lane was his property, instid o' the governor's. The governor was 't'ome, so I went and told 'im the good-lookin' rural with the bootiful whiskers wanted a hare. Law, Sar ! how he did cuss and swear ! He called them a set of jinnizerries. 'Coyham, bor,' ses he, * I'll tell ye what to du. Here's half a. crown ; du yow go to the citty, 54 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE and buy a nice hare, and git a bill for it, and ha' the bill reseated ; be sure, bor, yow take care o' that.' Next da' 5 up come the police, kind o' smilin'. ' I'a got a hare for ye,' ses I. 'How much is it, bor?' ses he. ' Two shillin's,' ses I. ' Tha's tu much,' ses he. * Don't sin golderin about no sech nonsense,' ses I ; * there's the hare, and I 'on't take no less. If you don't like it, you may lump it.' So off he go over that there midder, with the hare in his pocket. In a da' or two, he come agin, with his hat cocked o' one side, and sa', ' Yow must go along o' me to the magistrate's, Setten, about that there hare. Yow'll hear further about that.' ' Very well,' ses I, ' I ha'n't no objections. Other folks can see jest as far into a millstone as yow, with all your know.' So when the gen'lmen were a goin' to hear my case, I pulled out the bill riddy reseated, and pruvved that I'd sold the hare agin at a loss, all to oblige the nice-lookin' police."' 1 In mediaeval days the hare claimed the protection of the law no less than the red deer or the wild boar. In England, as also upon the Continent, the chase of the hare was held in high esteem. A special breed of fleet greyhounds, termed leporarii, was maintained both in England and in France. King John, for 1 The Dovecote and Aviary, p. 448. TfIR HARE AND THE LAWYERS 55 example, kept a kennel of these dogs in the county of Cumberland. One Allan Wastehouse took charge of it. He kept ten hounds, and four men formed the staff of his kennels. The cost of keeping it up for eighteen months amounted to iog/. 151., a consider- able sum in those days. But while the rich and powerful claimed the right of chasing poor Puss in sport, poorer men sought to enjoy her in the pot. For centuries the fortunes of the hare oscillated between her persecutors, and the legal strategy which devised protection for this animal is curious to study. Richard II. passed a statute prohibiting any layman from keeping greyhounds, or catching hares in nets or snares, unless he could prove that he possessed lands or tenements of the annual value of 40^. I do not know whether sporting parsons were then in the ascendent. Possibly they may have been. At all events, any weakness on their part for the pleasures of the chase was anticipated by the draughtsman of this same statute, who debarred the clergy from hunting hares unless their emoluments of office amounted to no less a sum than ten pounds per annum. There- after, the lawyers modelled their statutes to suit the views of country gentlemen. Their patrons, as justices of the peace, brought offenders to book. If necessary, they sent some luck- 56 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE less wight to lodge in the king's prison for twelve weary months. James I. was a sport-loving sovereign. The lawyers of his reign framed (for his satisfaction, I suppose) no fewer than three Acts to repress poach- ing. Of these, the first enacted that from August i, 1604, no one might keep a greyhound for coursing hares, unless he was either a man of good family, or enjoyed an income, in his own or his wife's right, of io/. a year. Happily for Puss, the man who dis- regarded this statute might be mulcted in a fine of 401. of good and lawful money of England. A flavour of popularity was infused into this arrangement by the proviso that the persons who were to benefit by the enforcement of the law were the poor and needy persons of the parish, upon whom the fine was to be duly expended by the churchwardens. Charles II. sanctioned a much more stringent Act, by which the property qualification was raised to ioo/., due half- yearly from landed property, or at least a lease of 1 5