much less if measured from a fore-foot mark to the next hind-foot marlc. This was also about the length of the dog's leap. The alternate nature of the leaps is interesting to notice, long and short leaps seeming to follow each other in regular succession.'[1]
The force with which a hare runs depends, I fancy, a good deal upon whether it is out in the centre of a field or is approaching a gateway. Unless pursued, it reduces its pace as it approaches an exit from the field. Mr. Miller Christy cites a curious collision between two hares:—'During a day's shooting on my uncle's land at Boynton Hall, near Chelmsford, about the middle of December, a hare came by its death in a most extraordinary way. Two hares were put up together from a field. Both ran back and tried to pass the beaters, but, being shouted at, became apparently confused, and ran straight at one another without looking. The result was a collision, after which one hare fell over, and its neck was found to be broken. The occurrence was witnessed by my uncle's keeper and several of the beaters, but I believe none of the guns saw it. I have heard of a case in which a coursed hare killed itself by running against a clod of earth, but never before have I heard of such an instance as the foregoing.'[2] A fact which I have
