Page:The Hare.djvu/63

Rh But hares have many perils to face on land as well as sea. It may be doubted whether the majority of sportsmen have obtained a correct conception of the quantity of game that annually perishes upon the railway lines which nowadays cut up many of the finest sporting estates in this country. All sorts of animals succumb by accident to the resources of civilisation. I have known a fine old dog otter to stray upon the metals, with fatal results. Water-rats are great sufferers, nor is this difficult to understand, since they inhabit the ditches upon both sides of the railway track, and often scuttle across the sleepers. In the neighbourhood of towns it is the domestic cat which perishes oftenest on the railway. Out in the open country hares and rabbits may be said to 'ring the changes.' It must not be supposed that feathered game is more fortunate than furred. Pheasants and partridges often strike the engines; red grouse and black game meet with the same fate. Only the other day a railway man brought to me a delicately mottled nightjar, which had incontinently charged the engine of a passenger train, and that in broad daylight. But hares and rabbits are most to the tastes of railway officials. The drivers and firemen of goods trains have generally the best chance of annexing the game which perishes on the