On Hunting

When they are well ahead of the hounds, they will stop, and sitting up will raise themselves and listen for the baying or the footfall of the hounds anywhere near; and should they hear the sound of them from any quarter, they make off.

Occasionally, even when they hear no sound, some fancy or conviction prompts them to jump hither and thither past and through the same objects, mixing the tracks as they retreat.

The longest runners are those that are found on bare land, because they are exposed to view; the shortest, those found in thick covers, since the darkness hinders their flight.

There are two species of hare.[*](The common hare and a smaller variety of the same; which is said to be more brindled in colour than the larger kind. See The Hare in Fur and Feather Series, p.5.)

The large are dark brown, and the white patch on the forehead is large; the smaller are chestnut, with a small white patch.

The larger have spots round the scut, the smaller at the side of it. The eyes in the large species are blue, in the small grey. The black at the tip of the ear is broad in the one species, narrow in the other.

The smaller are found in most of the islands, both desert and inhabited. They are more plentiful in the islands than on the mainland, for in the majority of these there are no foxes to attack and carry off the hares and their young; nor eagles, for they haunt big mountains rather than small, and the mountains in the islands, generally speaking, are rather small.