COUNTRY LIFE
ONE of the most extraordinary-accounts of animal behaviour I have even encountered comes to me from Miss Lucy Samman of North Ferriby in Yorkshire, and makes me wonder again what gets into a hare in March. Each spring, Miss Samman informs me, her cat, a large neuter, takes part in fights with a hare that has frequented her garden and fields for several years. I have been given the names of people who can substantiate the story of the skirmishes that take place between the hare and the cat. Miss Samman's gardener and the gardener's wife have witnessed the strange behaviour. The hare has been heard screaming, and fur was discovered on a lawn after- wards. The fur has been identified as being from both animals. There seems to be no doubt that the hare and cat fight annually, but no one who has yet heard the story can explain the behaviour. The antics of hares in March have to be seen to be believed. The spring madness makes them rear and box, oblivious of anything else, but in this case it can hardly be suggested that the hare mistakes the cat for one of its own kind, nor can the explanation lie in colouring, for the cat is black. If any reader has heard of such a thing before, I should be interested to compare accounts.
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