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Varying Hare — Part 2
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Toward sunset they start out in search of food and are back in their forms again soon after sunrise, but whether they spend the entire night in feeding or only the hours of twilight is not easy to determine; I am inclined to think that they are abroad more or less at all hours of the night, especially when there is moonlight or in the winter when it seldom gets very dark, and as they appear to depend at all times much more upon their other senses than upon their eyesight they would hardly be incommoded by the most intense darkness, and it is hard to imagine anything much blacker than the darkness beneath the hemlocks on a summer evening, even while it is still twilight in the open fields.
In spite of its size and the great strength of its hind legs which it uses so vigorously as a final defence, kicking and striking savagely when seized, the Northern hare seems to be preyed upon by all but the very smallest flesh-eating inhabitants of the woods; in the North the sable is said to be one of its worst enemies, and it is not at all unlikely that the mink in some of his upland hunts manages now and again to seize one either by stratagem or speed; for in spite of their short legs most of the weasel tribe, of which the mink is a member, are able to beat the hares at their own game, and although the latter have a decided advantage at the start and quickly outdistance their pursuers, the tireless muscles of the long-bodied hunters are pretty sure to enable them to have their own way in the end.
Even the ermine and little weasel have been known to kill full-grown hares, and though these cases are probably not very frequent, they must find the young and half-grown ones the easiest kind of victims.
Foxes are perhaps their most dangerous and persistent enemies, and from what I have seen I am inclined to think that our American foxes work in concert when hunting them just as the English foxes have been seen to do, one of them lying in ambush beside the path followed by the hares in order to seize any that may pass that way in their endeavours to escape from the other foxes which are driving them from their cover. The henhawks and goshawks, the great gray owl and the horned and snow owls as well as the eagles either pounce upon them unawares from the evergreens, or pursue them at full speed through the underbrush, while in fall and winter men hunt them with dogs and catch them with various kinds of traps and snares.
Although in the summer and early fall the dense undergrowth of the forest assists the hares in their constant endeavours at concealment, in the cold weather the leaves, with very few exceptions, either fall or, shrivelled to a fraction of their former dimensions hang listless upon their stalks, allowing the eye to penetrate where before everything was hidden, and, as if this were not enough, the snow comes to flatten the ferns and grasses and lay on a background of white against which all objects are conspicuous.
The Northern hare, however, like the ermine, has this advantage over the other wood dwellers in that at the approach of winter its fur, which from March to November is cinnamon or reddish brown of a shade best suited to match its accustomed surroundings, becomes in the course of a few weeks or even less perfectly white, and although for a time the brown fur still shows in spots, the general effect is such that of those that I have seen on the snow I should say that at least one half appeared actually whiter than the snow over which they ran, and this similarity of colouring with their surroundings makes it possible for them to crouch in safety practically invisible to human eyes, and undoubtedly often baffling the keener glances of the hawks.