Hares

Press, 5 January 1980, Page 10

Hares

Sir, —' Derrick Rooney’s article on the common hare (“The Press,” December 28), was disappointingly dogmatic and occasionally trivial at '-the expense of major points of interest. For example, alternative terms for form are squat or. seat; for pad, pat i or run; for jack, buck and for meuse or mewse, smile — surely not smeuse? The hare’s summer coat is whitish in the belly region, merging upwards into light rust brown, then into greyish brown with black tipped “guard hairs” along the spine. In .14 years of hunting I have commonly observed groups of two or more hares together, all year round, Omitted major points from the article include: hare boxing; drumming; the March hare, the fascinating hare court, the animals’ promiscuity and the does’ remarkable power of superfoetation. Perhaps the two most marked, non-elementary differences between hares pad rabbits are the hare’s enormous heart size and its split lip; — Yours, etc., GEORGE GRIFFITHS. December 29, 1979. [Derrick Rooney comments: “Dogmatic? Never! The article was 50 per cent observation, 50 per cent research, and if “major points of interest” were omitted that is because newspaper space is, alas finite.”]