Page:The Hare.djvu/101

Rh i.e. the track which the animal is accustomed to traverse in visiting and returning from its feeding grounds. If she is chased or terrified, the creature flies in whatever direction she thinks safety may be found; but so long as she is left at liberty undisturbed to nibble the tender shoots of clover at her will, she ambles playfully along the favourite winds that lie half hidden in the labyrinths of long grass. If you watch the rambles of a hare, I think you will find that she 'runs all roads,' as one of the poachers expresses it. A rabbit on the other hand generally runs straight. Of course a tiro would be unable to distinguish the 'trod' or path of a hare from that of a rabbit. Not so the poacher. He is rarely deceived, for he is a specialist and his skilled eye instantly distinguishes the run of a hare, because it is larger and broader than that of a rabbit. But he is not content to know where the hare runs. If he means to 'riddle the fields,' he searches all round the hedges and dykes to find the hare's bolt-hole, or 'smout,' as it is called in the North of England. Rabbits jump over obstacles. Hares try to find a way through them or under them. Of course hares can jump beautifully, but their habit is to seek a bolt-hole; so the hare's 'smout' may lead under a gate or through a dyke, it makes no difference to the poacher. He wishes to