As winter sets in, hares and rabbits are tempted to pay casual
nocturnal visits to the garden. To fence the garden securely may be
inconvenient--and unless the work is done thoroughly, not forgetting
the bottoms of gates, it is almost useless. And possibly only a few
plants are in danger, such as carnations or parsley, the special garden
favourites of hares and rabbits. So the simplest plan may be to wire in
the few plants or flower-beds that are threatened. Or a string may be
fixed at about eight inches off the ground, after being saturated with
one of the fluids used for tainting rabbits from their burrows. This is
useful when isolated carnations are dotted about in herbaceous borders,
or when there are several rows of Brussels sprouts in different parts
of the garden; hares are very fond of Brussels sprouts.
A mysterious affair occurred in a garden, which a gamekeeper was called
in to investigate. It appeared that the inhabitants of the house had
been awakened in the night by a din as if the roof of a tin church had
fallen off, a din proved to be associated with a piece of corrugated
iron in the garden, used as a stand for pots and pans. The mystery to
be explained was what had upset the stand and the pots. A tuft of the
fur of a hare on the tin gave the clue, with a nibbled patch of parsley
a few yards away. It was determined that a cat had come suddenly round
a corner on a hare enjoying an unlawful feast, and that the hare in
her fear had dashed headlong into the corrugated iron, thus raising
pandemonium; one effect was the hare came no more to that garden.
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