further river bank, without stopping to shake its dripping coat. The creature while swimming presented a somewhat strange and unwonted appearance, its head seeming to be large out of all proportion to the size of the body. This illusion was due of course to the fact of the head being kept above water, and therefore dry, while the rest of the body was submerged.
In December 1888 a brown hare was seen one day to cross the marsh at Dumbarton in the direction of the river Leven. She arrived upon the embankment at the moment when a man also reached the embankment. Unwilling to retrace her steps across the marsh, the hare boldly took to the water and began to cross. Unluckily when she reached the distant bank, she found her escape cut off by another enemy. Apprehending the danger, she turned and made again for the point she had recently left, and succeeded in accomplishing the swim home, but only to fall into the hands of her first enemy.[1]
Mr. J. Beaumont witnessed an interesting instance of a hare taking to the sea, when pressed by greyhounds. 'In October 1887,' he says, 'I was a member of a shooting party, staying near Auchencairn on the Kirkcudbrightshire coast, where for
- ↑ Nature, vol. .xxxviii. p. 209.
