A wet, cold spring means death to the majority of early leverets. They
are given a good chance of life, coming into the world as perfect
little hares, with complete fur coat and open eyes; and, like partridge
chicks, they can run on the day they are born. But they are not always
strong enough to withstand the English spring. A leveret, no larger
than a man's fist, runs with extraordinary speed, and often escapes
from a dog, while a man must be sound in wind and limb to overtake it
in the open. Rabbits, born naked, develop a very fair turn of speed so
soon as they come above ground, but they quickly give up in despair if
pursued.
There is a widespread idea that hares breed only once in a year, and
produce only one leveret. The gamekeeper knows well that puss may
produce several leverets at a birth, and will have family after family
from as early as January to the end of September. As with rabbits, the
leverets born early one year themselves may breed in the late summer
of the same year. No doubt the hare is credited with only one or two
young ones because only one or two are found together. Occasionally,
it is true, several very young leverets may be found in one place; but
they are usually cradled in separate seats, not far from each other. We
once found a family of eight little leverets crouching in a bunch under
a heap of hedge-trimmings. Evidently we discovered them within a few
moments of their entry into the world.
The mother hare is wise to separate her family. Many dangers threaten
the leveret's life; but if families were kept together the young
ones would be even more open to attack from rooks and crows, and
scent-hunting vermin in fur. The leveret with its eyes pecked out by
a rook, yet still living, is a sight which pleads for the mercy of a
swift death at the gamekeeper's hands. The mother hare is keenly alive
to the dangers besetting her family. If you find a leveret one day
nestling in a tuft of grass, or against a clod of earth, whether or not
you handle it the mother will certainly remove it before the morrow.
She will wind danger in your scent.
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