More than once, descending the steep face of the Downs, we have set
foot upon hares in their forms--crouching so closely as to be unseen
until felt; and once we have witnessed a curious fatal accident
which befell a half-grown hare through the habit of lying low.
Partridge-shooting was going on in a field of sainfoin, and as the guns
lined out from the fence we saw this hare dancing, as it were, on her
head. It was a dance of death, and before we could reach her puss was
lying still. One of the guns had actually trodden on her head, and had
passed on unknowingly. Half-grown and undersized hares seen in autumn
have small chance of enduring through the winter; with the setting in
of cold weather their fate is sealed; they are unable to thrive on the
rough frosted food, and are claimed by a lingering death. In the wet
days of autumn, when showers of leaves and rain are falling, hares
change their quarters in the woods for the open fields, preferring of
all places a stubble-field free of grasses that hold the moisture.
The fall of rain and moist leaves has an opposite effect upon the
rabbits--driving them to the shelter of their newly renovated burrows,
where they lie all day, snug, warm, and dry.
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