Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 3, March 1899: Illustrated by Color PhotographyVarious
History
Birds and All Nature, Vol. 5, No. 3, March 1899: Illustrated by Color Photography
Various
Birds -- Periodicals; Natural history -- Periodicals
Hares are a very important article of commerce and, during the winter
season, tons of them are daily shipped to the principal markets from
all quarters. They are sold at cheap rates, and are frequently peddled
about the streets by the cartload at surprisingly low figures.
The methods of pursuit and capture of these animals are numerous, but
the most common and successful are trailing in the snow with dogs,
hounding, and coursing. To trail hares in the winter one must have dogs
of keen scent and a light fall of from two to four inches of snow must
have been deposited the night previous to an early morning start. Two
or more hunters equipped with dogs and guns usually start together.
Thickets of elder and blackberry are sought where the game is known to
lie. The hunters skirt the border of a patch of these bushes and the
dogs are sent in. The dogs soon drive the hares from cover when they
become a ready mark for the gunners. Where the ground is rocky they
will try to hide by running into any hole or crevice which may offer
protection. In hounding hares the hunters are stationed at various
points on the paths as the hares, like deer and foxes, follow regular
beaten tracks. The hounds start the game from belts of pine, cedar,
or hemlock. Each hunter waits for the animals to pass his station and
fires at them as they go by at full run. It is considered no mean
accomplishment to secure a hare under these circumstances. Trapping
and snaring are also methods of capturing jack rabbits. They are
principally employed by pot hunters, and many people make it their sole
business during the winter months. Greyhounds are used in coursing
hares, but the jack rabbit frequently discomfits both horse and hound.
Hares do not live in burrows, as is the case with the rabbit, but lie
in a form in bush or thicket, a slight depression in the ground serving
for a nest, or sometimes a hollow stump, or the under side of a ledge
of rock is selected. The young, when born, are covered with hair,
their eyes are open, and they are able almost immediately to support
themselves. The rabbit, on the other hand, is born with closed eyes,
and requires the constant attention of the mother for some time. The
hares are not so prolific as the rabbits, the female bringing forth but
from three to five young at a litter, the rabbits bearing from five to
eight.
Hares generally feed at night, lying in their forms in some bush or
copse during the greater part of the day; rabbits, on the contrary,
generally remain in the warmest corner of the burrow during the dark
hours. The food of the hare consists of all kinds of vegetables similar
in nature to cabbage and turnips, which are favorite dainties with it;
it is also especially fond of lettuce and parsley.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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