The March hare is certainly mad; what but madness could cause him
to go capering round and round a field for hours at a stretch? The
battles of the hares are waged in companies; you may see a score of
militant, amorous hares together, and several couples will be engaged
in duels. The combatants rear themselves on their hind legs, and spar
furiously with their front feet, and when one of a fighting pair has
had enough of it another instantly takes his place; while the hare
that refuses to fight may be chased until forced to turn and square
himself to the battle. The whole company may set upon some poor
coward, and worry his life out of him. It would seem that when once
hares and rabbits have finished their duels, so common a sight in the
country in March, they live peaceably enough through the rest of the
breeding season. After these early days of courting, one seldom sees
more than a slight skirmish between a couple of hares or rabbits,
though the does breed again and again through the summer. Fights at
courting times among wild creatures are usually due either to a local
or temporary preponderance of males, or to some special attraction of
particular females. At this time of year, it might appear that fighting
and courtship went naturally together; but we doubt if wild creatures
who pair are given very much to fighting and quarrelling. It is when
one has many wives, as the cock pheasant or the stag, that the most
desperate fighting is done.
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