Page:The Hare.djvu/31

Rh well together. The smaller animal defiles the hare's pasturage, for the hare is a fastidious feeder, and will not willingly feed where rabbits have been. The rabbit is as audacious as it is erotic, and has no fear of the hare, which it often bullies and hounds off its favourite grounds. I feel little or no doubt that in some cases the disappearance of the hare is due to the hostility of the rabbit.

Another and more important condition to be considered in determining the number of hares is the presence or absence of disease. I have not found the brown hare to be as susceptible either to wet or to diseases born of hunger as the rabbit undoubtedly is. Certainly rumours of English hares dying from lung disease reached me from an estate in the North of England a few years ago; but I had no opportunity of ascertaining whether the complaint was well founded or not. That the hare is peculiarly liable to a species of consumption, however, there can be no doubt, because it has been proved up to the hilt. Thus, in the autumn of 1882, a great many hares died in the district of Eisvold, in Norway. The cause of the deaths of these animals was inquired into by Professor Heiberg, of Christiania. His researches resulted in the discovery that the air passages and pulmonary substance of the deceased animals were charged with