cimens of the kind has taught me to hold the sportsman's amufement in abhorrence; he little knows what amiable creatures he perfecutes, of what gratitude they are capable, how cheerful they are in their fpirits, what enjoyment they have of life, and that impreffed as they feem with a peculiar dread of man, it is only because man gives them peculiar caufe for it.

That I may not be tedious, I will just give a fhort fummary of thofe articles of diet, that fuit them best.

I take it to be a general opinion that they graze, but it is an erroneous one, at least grafs is not their staple; they seem rather to use it medicinally, foon quitting it for leaves of almost any kind. Sowthiftle, dent-de-lion, and lettuce, are their favourite vegetables, efpecially tho laft. I difcovered by accident that fine white fand is in great eftimation with them; I fuppofe as a digeftive. It happened that I was cleaning a bird-cage while the hares were with me; I placed a pot filled with fuch fand upon the floor, which being at once directed to by a ftrong inftinct, they devoured voraciously; fince that time I have general'y taken care to fee them well fupplied with it. They account green corn a delicacy, both blade and ftalk, but the ear they feldom eat: ftraw of any kind, efpecially wheat-ftraw, is another of their dainties;

VOL. II.

they will feed greedily upon oats, but if furnished with clean ftraw never want them; it ferves them alfo for a bed, and if fhaken up daily, will be kept sweet and dry for a confiderable 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 mufk; they feem to refemble fheep in this, that, if their pafture be too fucculent, they are very fubject to the rot; to prevent which, I always made bread their principal nourishment, and filling a pan with it cut into fmall fquares, placed it every evening in their chambers, for they feed only at evening and in the night: during the winter, when vegetables were not to be got, I mingled this mefs of bread with fhreds of carrot, adding to it the rind of apples cut extremely thin; for, though they are fond of the paring, the apple itself difgufts them. Thefe however not being a fufficient fubftitute for the juice of fummer herbs, they muft at this time be fupplied with water; but fo placed that they cannot overfet it into their beds. I must not omit that occafionally they are much pleafed with twigs of hawthorn, and of the common briar, eating even the very wood when it is of confiderable thickness.

Befs, I have faid, died young; Tiney lived to be nine

years old, and died at last, have reafon to think, of fome hurt in his loins by a fall; Pufs is ftill living, and has jut completed his tenth year, discovering no figns of decay, nor even of age, except that he is grown more difereet and lefs frolicfome than he was. I cannot conclude without obferving, that I have lately introduced a dog to his acquaintance, 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. Pufs difcovered no token of fear, nor Marquis the least symptom of hoftility. There is therefore, it should feem, no natural antipathy between dog and hare, but the pursuit of the one occafions the flight of the other, and the dog purfues because he is trained to it: they eat bread at the fame time out of the fame hand, and are in all refts fociable and friendly.

I fhould not do complete juftice to my fubject did I not add, that they have no ill fcent belonging to them, that they are indefatigably nice in keeping. themselves clean, for which purpose nature has furnished them with a brush under each foot; and that they are never infefted by any vermin.

MAY 28, 1784.

Memorandum found among Mr. Cowper's papers.

Tuesday, March 9, 1786.

This day died poor Pufs, aged eleven years eleven She died between twelve and one at noon,

months.

mere old age, and apparently without pain

of

TRI END.

T. Beadley Printer, Bolt Court, Fleet Street,