HARES AND RABBITS. 243

der—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 or below the desired point of landing. The
other hare then cantered back to the hills.”
AHuntea The following story of a hunted hare is from
Hare. “The Annals of Sporting,” for May 1822:—*Two
years ago, a doe hare produced two young ones in a field
adjoining my cottage; and the three were occasionally seen,
during the summer, near the same spot. But the leverets
were, I have reason to believe, killed at the latter end of
September of the same year; the old doe hare was also
coursed, and making directly for my cottage, entered the
garden, and there blinked the dogs. I repeatedly afterwards
saw her sitting, sometimes in the garden, (which is one
hundred and ten yards by forty-three,) but more frequently
in the garden-hedge. She was repeatedly seen by greyhounds
when she sat at some distance, but uniformly made for the
garden, and never failed to find security. About the end of
the following January, puss was no longer to be seen about
the garden, as she had probably retired to some distance
with a male companion. One day, in February, I heard the
hounds, and shortly afterwards observed a hare making towards
the garden, which it entered at a place well known, and left
not the least doubt on my mind, that it was my old acquaintance,
which, in my family, was distinguished by the name of Kitty.
The harriers shortly afterwards came in sight, followed Kitty,
and drove her from the garden. I became alarmed for the
safety of my poor hare, and heartily wished the dogs might
come to an irrecoverable fault. The hare burst away with
the fleetness of the wind, and was followed breast high, by