Hunting Rabbits and Hares - Chapters on Coursing, Trapping and Cooking

By Anon Anon

This book contains classic material dating back to the 1900s and before. The content has been carefully selected for its interest and relevance to a modern audience.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Read Country Books
• Release date: Jan 8, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528764438

Book preview

HARES.

I NEED hardly say that Hares are not game in the same sense of the word as grouse, partridges, and pheasants; but as they are among the animals feræ naturæ, which form the sportsman’s quarry, they are entitled to a full recognition in these Notes.

The Hare belongs to that Order of Mammalia which is termed Glires or Rodentia Rodents, i.e., animals which gnaw their food. They have none of the sharp teeth called canine, such as those in lions and other animals which seize and destroy living creatures, but in the front of each jaw there are two long flat teeth, slightly curved, and having a kind of chisel edge for rasping away wood or other articles. The constant labour which these teeth (called incisors, from the Latin word incido, I cut) undergo would rapidly wear them away; and therefore to counterac this loss, they are constantly growing and being pushed forward, so that as fast as the upper parts are worn away they are replenished from the root. So constant is this increase that when an unfortunate hare or other rodent has lost one of its incisors, the opposite one, meeting nothing to stop its progress, continually grows until sometimes it curls over the lips, and prevents the wretched owner from eating. In the same Order of Rodentia, and so allied to hares, are mice, beavers, squirrels, porcupines, jerboas, and marmots.

The Family name of Hares is that of Leporidæ, containing only two species, the Common Hare (Lepus timidus), and the rabbit (Lepus cuniculus). The word Lepus is from the old Greek λέπoρıς (collat. form of λαγώς), which is akin to the Sanscrit langh, to leap, and thus it signifies the leaping animal. From Plautus we find that it was used by the Romans, like the names of the quail and the sparrow (passer) and dove as a term of endearment, as in Cas. 1, 50, we have Meus pullus passer, mea columba, mi lepus. The English word Hare is from the Anglo-Saxon Hara, which we find in various languages, for instance, the Dutch, the Swedish, and Old German, and in various forms. Junius suggests that the Anglo-Saxon hœr, the hair, is the source of the word referring to the declaration of Pliny that the "hare is the hairiest creature of all others." Another etymologist refers it to the Anglo-Saxon har, hoary or white, while yet another will have it from the German har-en, to cry out—quod hiberno tempore acutissime clamat, i.e., because its cry is more shrill during winter. And yet again, one of the learned suggests that the noun hare "is not improbably of the same origin as the old English verb to hare, and that the name was given to the animal because of its terrors when harried or pursued by harriers Clarendon, in his Civil Wars, and Locke On Education," both use the verb to hare in the sense of frightening. Here, then, is a pretty wide choice in the way of etymology.

Rightly is the hare called timidus, as a more shy and timid animal does not exist. Thus it came to be considered cowardly, and in Bishop Hall we find the line,

To rouse thine hare’s heart from her cowardice.

Skinner connecs the expression hare-brained (originally written hair or haire) with the verb to hare, and with the well-known adage, As mad as a March hare. This saying is based on the fac that in this month, which is their first rutting season, hares are always on the qui vive, frequently moving and shifting from their forms even in the open day—Jack hares especially, which, from their constant exercise, afford in March the best runs before harriers.

Some naturalists have termed the hare family Dasypoda, which in the Greek signifies hairy-footed, the hind feet being covered with hair, which gives the animal a firmer foothold—an admirable arrangement, aiding the enormous power of propulsion existing in the long hind legs of the animal. I have been told, or have read somewhere, that a hare can run faster up-hill than down, but I doubt it.

We have two varieties of hares in these islands, the Common Hare (timidus) and the Alpine or Mountain Hare (Lepus variabilis), so called from its changing colour at different seasons of the year. By some the latter is termed the Scotch hare, because it is found in great abundance in the northern parts of Scotland. It is smaller than the common hare, and its ears are shorter than the head, and black towards the tips. Like the Arcic fox, and the ermine, and the ptarmigan grouse (as already mentioned), it changes colour as the winter approaches. The transition is gradual, the tawny grey of its summer coat beginning to show a change about the middle of September. Before the end of the month all the four feet are white, and the ears and muzzle of a brighter colour. The white generally ascends the legs and thighs, and whitish spots are observed under the grey hairs, which continue to increase till the end of Ocober; but still the black remains of a grey colour, while the eyebrows and ears are nearly white. From this period the change of colour advances very rapidly, and by the middle of November, the whole fur, with the exception of the tips of the ears, which remain black, is of a shining white, the black taking only eight days to turn colour. Most naturalists speak of this transformation as an acual change of coat, and shedding of the entire fur; but I believe the correc view is that there is no such shedding of the fur at all, and that no hair falls from the animal, the transformation being effeced simply by a change of the fluid colouring in the hairs ; just as there is a change in the colouring of the feathers in many birds without moulting. The fur continues white till the month of March, or even later, according to the temperature of the atmosphere, and by the middle of May it has again assumed its grey colour. But the spring change is different from that of the winter, as in the former there is a complete shedding of the hair and absolute change of coat. We are naturally led to inquire what benefit the animals receive from this periodical change, and it is not difficult to arrive at a satisfacory answer. Colour has a great influence on the ratio at which bodies cool. It is an established law that surfaces which reflec heat most readily allow it to escape very slowly by radiation. White objecs reflec most readily, consequently there will be a proportionate difficulty in their radiation of heat. If a black animal and a white one were placed in a higher temperature than that of our own bodies, the heat would enter the black one with the greatest rapidity, and soon elevate its temperature considerably above that of the other. These differences manifest themselves in wearing black and white coloured clothing during hot weather. Thus, if animals are placed in a temperature considerably lower than their own, the animal which is black will give out its heat by radiation to the surrounding objecs sooner than the white one, which will part with its heat at a much slower rate. Hence it would appear that the clothing of animals is often especially suited in colour to the temperature of the localities they inhabit. It is on this principle that we wear white clothing when we can in the summer. And for the same reason we should wear white clothing in the winter, as medical writers often recommend us to do. There can be no doubt of the soundness of the advice, but in the metropolis and large centres of population, during the months when smoke surrounds us like a fog, and blacks fall as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa, white costumes would very soon be the worse for wear—in fac they are impossibilities.

But doubtless there is another reason why mountain hares are endowed with the gift of changing colour, namely, that they may have a better chance of escaping their numerous enemies. In many northern countries, keeneyed and voracious birds of prey are much more numerous than in Britain, and in winter the poor hares would probably be soon exterminated, did not their change of colour assimilate with the snow, and so render them by no means distinguishable objecs even to the cleverest of falcons a few hundred yards distant.

In 1878 several specimens of the Lepus variabilis were brought from Russia, and deposited in the Jardin d’ Acclimation at Paris. I should be glad to know whether they have kept up their old habit of turning colour in their confinement and comparatively warm temperature, and still enjoy their old faculty now that the use of it is gone.

There is no need to give a description of the common hare, as it is almost as well known, even to children, as a cat or a dog. It can hardly be said to be a pretty animal, though its dark lustrous eyes are very beautiful, and the capers it cuts are graceful enough, as those who have seen hares at their gambols on the hard snow beneath a bright moon are well aware. They are interesting animals, however, from a natural history point of view, some of their habits and customs being very singular. That of making forms out in the open fields and sitting in them all day strikes me as one of the most remarkable. I can quite understand their leaving the woods as they generally do when the noise of the falling leaves would keep them in a constant state of alarm; but I cannot see why they should not return when the woods are bare, but prefer to form in the fields, and especially on the cold barren fallows, which they most affect. A more cheerless, wretched existence than sitting all day in a form in a ploughed field I cannot imagine, and one would almost think that they were in great danger of getting stiff with rheumatism.

Perhaps they get through the day mostly in sleep! I have heard it said that they sleep with only one eye closed, but I never yet came upon a hare with either eye shut.

Most of us know how difficult it is to spot, or more correctly speaking to soho, a hare on its form. It seems almost a gift; as some persons cannot see a hare when you point it out to them within a few yards of their noses, while others seem to be able to detect one a hundred yards or more away. Some old coursers have a marvellous faculty in this line; and it is said they almost invariably spot the hare by catching its eye.

A hare is credited with the clever dodge of taking a long leap into a form, before seating herself, so as to cut off the scent, especially after being pursued by hounds. I am not in a position to endorse the truth of this statement; nor that