. The Hare : Natural history . e. Although popularlysupposed to live exclusively under an open sky, thehare has a strong partiality for the vicinity of covert,to which she often repairs for shelter at the break ofday. The wild, free life of the woods is entirely tothe taste of the hare. She hkes to bound joyouslyalong, unimpeded by the fear of impending disaster ;for at the best she is a shy and timid creature, littleable to protect her delicate frame from the onslaughtof ancestral foes. The amorous character of the hareis well marked. The male sex is generally in numeri-cal excess ; to this c
. The Hare : Natural history . e. Although popularlysupposed to live exclusively under an open sky, thehare has a strong partiality for the vicinity of covert,to which she often repairs for shelter at the break ofday. The wild, free life of the woods is entirely tothe taste of the hare. She hkes to bound joyouslyalong, unimpeded by the fear of impending disaster ;for at the best she is a shy and timid creature, littleable to protect her delicate frame from the onslaughtof ancestral foes. The amorous character of the hareis 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 toengage at the beginning of the mating time. Themales fight with their feet, and make the down oftheir opponents fly freely. They are especially in-terested in the duties of reproduction during themonth of March, at which time they are unusuallyplayful and full of antics ; hence the proverb, * As madas a March hare. Practical men are not agreed as. STUDIES IN HARE LIFE 15 to the number of leverets produced by the hare in theyear. A friend of mine, who has opened a greatmany doe hares, assures me that only a single leveretis usually produced at a birth. Others consider thatit is only young female hares of the year that dropsingle young ones ; and they contend that old haresdrop two or three leverets not uncommonly. Fiveis, apparently, the maximum of leverets ever droppedby English hares ; but the reproduction of a greaternumber is not impossible. The rates at which most wild animals and birdsincrease seem to be governed in the main by theirrelative food supplies. These, taken together with thedifficulties which such individuals have had to over-come, before they succeeded in propagating their ownkind, enable us to anticipate, however imperfectly,their probable numbers. Colonel Fielden found thatthe Polar hare produces no fewer than eight youngones. This remarkable circumstance may be explainedby the
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