A HARE'S SANCTUARY.
A good many anecdotes have been told recently of the sudden appeal of birds and other animals to mankind at times of stress. The best incident that I know of was told me by an Englishman exploring in Canada. He was in the North-West in winter, and across the snow saw a white ermine pursuing a white hare, which from terror or weariness was nearly at the end of its tether. But just in time it caught sight of friendly— or less hostile—man, ran up, crouched between his legs, though he carried a gun, and there abided. The ermine took a circle or two round man and hare and then made off. As soon as it had vanished the hare stood up and lolloped off in the opposite direction. English hares have a like sense. I knew one garden in the Midlands where hares always sought sanctuary on the occasion of the yearly (and most unpleasant) coursing meeting.
Previous page
