DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70300#0215
DOMESTICATION OF HAKES.
187
Straw of any kind, especially wheat straw, is another of
their dainties; they will feed greedily upon oats, but if fur-
nished with clean straw, never want them ; it serves them
also for a bed, and, if shaken up daily, will be kept sweet
and dry for a considerable time. They do not indeed require
aromatic herbs, but will eat a small quantity of them with
great relish, and are particularly fond of the plant called
musk; they seem to resemble sheep in this, that, if their
pasture be too succulent, they are very subject to the rot;
to prevent which, I always made bread their principal nou-
rishment, and filling a pan with it cut qito small squares,
placed it every evening in their chambers, for they feed only
at evening and in the night; during the winter, when vege-
tables were not to be got, I mingled this mess of bread with
shreds of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut ex-
tremely thin ; for, though they are fond of the paring, the
apple itself disgusts them. These, however, not being a
sufficient substitute for the juice of summer herbs, they must
at this time be supplied with water—but so placed, that they
cannot overset it into their beds. 1 must not omit that occa-
sionally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn, and
of the common briar, eating even the very wood when it is
of considerable thickness.
Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine
years old, and died at last, I have reason to think, of some
hurt in his loins by a fall; Puss is still living, and has just
completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of decay, nor
even of age, except that he is grown more discreet, and less
frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude without ob-
serving, that I have lately introduced a dog to his acquaint-
ance—a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had
never seen a spaniel. I did it with great caution ; but there
was no real need of it. Puss discovered no token of fear,
nor Marquis the least symptom of hostility. There is,
therefore, it should seem, no natural antipathy between dog
and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the Sight of
187
Straw of any kind, especially wheat straw, is another of
their dainties; they will feed greedily upon oats, but if fur-
nished with clean straw, never want them ; it serves them
also for a bed, and, if shaken up daily, will be kept sweet
and dry for a considerable time. They do not indeed require
aromatic herbs, but will eat a small quantity of them with
great relish, and are particularly fond of the plant called
musk; they seem to resemble sheep in this, that, if their
pasture be too succulent, they are very subject to the rot;
to prevent which, I always made bread their principal nou-
rishment, and filling a pan with it cut qito small squares,
placed it every evening in their chambers, for they feed only
at evening and in the night; during the winter, when vege-
tables were not to be got, I mingled this mess of bread with
shreds of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut ex-
tremely thin ; for, though they are fond of the paring, the
apple itself disgusts them. These, however, not being a
sufficient substitute for the juice of summer herbs, they must
at this time be supplied with water—but so placed, that they
cannot overset it into their beds. 1 must not omit that occa-
sionally they are much pleased with twigs of hawthorn, and
of the common briar, eating even the very wood when it is
of considerable thickness.
Bess, I have said, died young; Tiney lived to be nine
years old, and died at last, I have reason to think, of some
hurt in his loins by a fall; Puss is still living, and has just
completed his tenth year, discovering no signs of decay, nor
even of age, except that he is grown more discreet, and less
frolicsome than he was. I cannot conclude without ob-
serving, that I have lately introduced a dog to his acquaint-
ance—a spaniel that had never seen a hare, to a hare that had
never seen a spaniel. I did it with great caution ; but there
was no real need of it. Puss discovered no token of fear,
nor Marquis the least symptom of hostility. There is,
therefore, it should seem, no natural antipathy between dog
and hare, but the pursuit of the one occasions the Sight of