RURAL SPORTS FOR THE MONTHS.

MARCH.

Like some poor exiled wretch

The frighted hare leaves her late dear abodes,

O'er plains remote she stretches far away,

Ah never to return! for greedy Death

Hovering exults, secure to seize his prey.-SOMERVILLE.

THAT branch of hunting in which the dogs employed pursue their game by sight, and not by scent, is denominated "coursing," and is a practice of high antiquity and considerable celebrity. There is reason to believe that a dog, quick of sight, and somewhat swift of foot, was known to the ancients nearly 4000 years ago; and in the time of Arrian, who flourished A.D. 150, the practice of coursing had been reduced to a systematic form. Yet the early representations of dogs employed in coursing the hare, present little conformity with the elegant make, and limbs so especially adapted for fleetness, which distinguish our modern greyhound.

Of the latter animal, however, it has been truly said that, "Admire him as much as we will, when we examine him on anatomical, physiological, and true philosophical principles, we must be constrained to consider him as wholly an artificial animal." The coursing of the ancients was of a bolder and more masculine character than that of our own times, for the stag, wolf, wild goat, fox, and other swift animals, were thus pursued; and besides the employment of fleet dogs of various kinds, the huntsmen were provided with suitable weapons, such as bows, spears, darts, &c. The modern practice of coursing is confined to the pursuit of the hare only, and is followed either in its simple form, or with the additional stimulus of matching the dogs of different individuals against each other, and adjudging prizes to the victors. Simple, or unmatched coursing, though originally considered a sufficiently interesting employment, and still possessing many advocates, is too monotonous in its character to please the zealous admirer of more enlivening sports. An old writer calls "hunting of the hare with greyhoundes a ryght good solace for men that be studiouse, or theim to whom nature hath not geven personage or courage apte for the warres; and also for gentil women which feare nether sonne, nor wynde, for appayyring their beautie; and peradventure, (adds he,) they shall be therat lesse idell than they shold be at home in their chambers." Arrian's panegyric of this sport is as follows:-"Concerning coursing with greyhoundes-the which is doubtlesse a noble pastime, and as meet for nobility and gentlemen, as any of the others before declared, especially the course of the hare, which is a sport continually in sight, and made without any great travaile; so that recreation is therein to be found without immeasurable toyle and payne: whereas, in hunting with hounds, although the pastime be great, yet many times the toyle and payne is also exceeding great; and then it may well be called eyther a painfull pastime, or a pleasant payne."

The practice of coursing has been decried even more perhaps than that of hunting, on account of its inhumanity; the chances of escape for the hare being fewer, and the speed to which she is pushed far greater. But it is by no means considered in this light by sports. men themselves. They hold it unfair and unsportsmanlike to pursue their game at a great disadvantage, and therefore make it a rule that a brace of greyhounds only shall be used in the pursuit of a single hare, and that when a hare is found on her form, it is disgraceful to put her up without withdrawing the dogs to a fair distance, so that the pursuers and the pursued may be nearly on a par. Three greyhounds to one hare was even in olden time considered against the laws of cour sing, seeing that "a brace of dogges is enow for such a poor beaste."

Match coursing is a much more exciting pursuit than the one we have just alluded to, inasmuch as it includes something of the competition and anxiety which attach in a still greater degree to horse-racing. The chase of the hare is in this case entered on principally as a trial of speed in greyhounds matched against each other; and these animals, by the exertion of that fleetness for which they are so remarkable, earn a sporting celebrity for their respective owners, and gain for them the prizes awarded on the occasion. Clubs are established in various places, for the promotion of this sport.

But we must turn our attention from the pursuers to the pursued, and examine the history of the timid and inoffensive animal, thus made the object of interest and eager contention. The genus Lepus, to which the hare belongs, includes many species of animals, having points of great similarity with each other, and is considered as one of the most natural as well as most numerous and remarkable families in the class of rodent, or gnawing mammalia. Hares, properly so called, or animals of the allied sub-genera agreeing well with them in their main characters, are distributed over most countries on the face of the earth; being found alike in warm regions, on the margins of deserts, in wild and hilly countries, in culti vated lands, and on the verge of perpetual snow. All the species are perfectly defenceless, and find their only chance of safety in the fleetness of their movements; they are all alike under the influence of an almost perpetual fear, and their quick perception of sounds, which would be inaudible to many other animals, renders them watchful and alive to danger. This excessive timidity and apprehension cannot be regarded as otherwise than painful to the animal, and it has been remarked by one of our naturalists that "all but sportsmen must pity creatures which exist constantly under the excitement of acute fear."

The common hare is sufficiently known as to its general figure, which is framed for extraordinary powers of locomotion. The fore-legs are much shorter and more slender than the hind-legs, and by this peculiarity greatly assist the saltatory motion of the animal. It is a singularity of this species to have the palms of the feet covered with hair, which protects them from the injury they would be likely to receive from the rough, dry soil they prefer, and in some measure compensates for the want of that elastic padding, which in the dog and other animals affords so good a security to its possessors. The eyes of the hare are admirably adapted to its habits and necessities. They are very prominent, and the pupil is elongated in a horizontal direction. Thus the field of vision is suffi ciently large to allow the animal to keep its pursuers in view, without altering the position of the head. As it is impossible, however, that the hare can look in two directions at the same time, it has been known to run into the very danger it was seeking to avoid. upper lip of the hare is cleft. The nostrils are circular, and almost hidden in a fold, by which means they are capable of being closed. The tongue is thick and soft. The great length of the ears, and their mobility in every

The

direction, are very favourable to the reception of sound, and the anatomy of these organs shows that they are particularly calculated to receive such sounds as come from behind. Like the nostrils, they are capable of being closed, and thus, in a state of safety and repose, the animal has the power of lessening that acute perception of sounds which would be unnecessary, as well as irksome at such a time.

Besides these characters which are common to all the genus, the hare has certain peculiarities as a species, the most prominent of which is colour. This, in the natural state of the animal, is always grayish-brown, with the exception of some of the Alpine species, whose colours change with the seasons. The tail is invariably white on the under side, and blackish on the upper part. There is a spot over or around the eye, in many cases white, and always lighter coloured than the surrounding fur, and this spot is, in a state of nature, never wanting. The under part of the body is white, and the tips of the ears are black; the body, especially the upper part, is covered with two sorts of hair, the one long and silky, the other short, fine, and woolly:-the latter is extensively used in the manufacture of hats as a substitute for the hair of the beaver, to which, however, it is greatly inferior in durability and in retention of the colour given by dyeing. In those countries of Middle and Southern Europe, which, compared with our own country, are but thinly peopled, and indifferently cultivated, the number of hares taken annually is immense, so that their skins form an important article of commerce, being exported for the use of the hat manufacturer, as well as employed locally as warm articles of clothing. It is understood that the small kingdom of Bohemia alone furnishes nearly half a million skins in the course of the year, Austria Proper nearly double that number, and Russia and Western Siberia a still larger proportion. Hares multiply rapidly, and if undisturbed, it is supposed their increase would prove greater than that of most other quadrupeds. A tuft of grass, or heather, or a mere hollow formed on the bare ground, is often the birth-place and dwelling of the young leverets, until they are old enough to provide for the supply of their own wants. The young are suckled by the dam for little more than three weeks, and then begin to separate and make their own forms. They arrive at maturity in one year, and the term of their natural lives is supposed to be eight or nine years.

Hares do not burrow like rabbits beneath the earth; they merely look for a convenient hollow place in a furrow, where, by their similarity in colour with the soil around them, they escape the notice of all but experienced eyes. This is called their seat, and here they pass the greater part of the day, till the approach of evening gives them courage to go abroad in search of sustenance. They have been observed by shepherds and those who are in the habit of watching their proceedings, to change their seat, according to the weather, generally seeking the more elevated ground when rain prevails. In severe weather they repair to the woods, where they will prey on the bark of almost every tree, and are often very injurious to young plantations. Their food consists of vegetables, and they show the greatest relish for milky and succulent plants.

The hare is commonly considered to possess no great degree of intelligence, yet the way in which it doubles to avoid its pursuers seems to evince much sagacity. Fearful as these animals are in their natural state, they have yet been soothed by gentle treatment into a degree of confidence and boldness quite unexpected in creatures of such acknowledged timidity. A French naturalist describes one of these animals as having become entirely domesticated in his house, and having lost its natural wildness, with respect to all the inmates; but showing tokens of fear on the approach of strangers. In winter, it sat before the fire between two large Angora cats, and

a sporting dog, with whom it lived on the best of terms; at table it was generally close to its master looking for food, and if thwarted in its expectation would beat with its fore-paws on the hand and arm of the person so treating it.

The age of the hare is, as we have said, reckoned to extend to eight or nine years; but one of Cowper's favourites lived eleven years and eleven months. Of this animal he speaks in the following lines.

One sheltered hare
Has never heard the sanguinary yell
Of cruel man exulting in her woes.
Innocent partner of my peaceful home,
Whom ten long years experience of my care
Has made at last familiar; she has lost
Much of her vigilant, instinctive dread,
Nor needful here beneath a roof like mine.
Yes, thou may'st eat thy bread, and lick the hand
That feeds thee; thou may'st frolic on the floor
At evening, and at night retire secure

To thy straw couch, and slumber unalarmed;
For I have gained thy confidence, have pledged
All that is human in me to protect
Thy unsuspecting gratitude and love.
If I survive thee, I will dig thy grave;
And, when I place thee in it, sighing say,
I knew at least one hare that had a friend.

Rue belongs to an extensive natural order of plants called Rutacea, inhabiting widely different situations from each other, and forming, as they are thus united, an interesting, but somewhat heterogeneous group. This order contains thirty-seven genera, or families, most of which are strong-scented plants. Some of them are shrubby in their habit, some arborescent: many of them possess medicinal qualities, as the Guaiacums, (one species of which yields also the lignum vitæ of commerce): others are favourite plants in greenhouses, as the Diosmas, and are very easy of cultivation. Common garden rue is the type of the order. It is a native of the South of Europe, and is said to have been first cultivated in this country in 1562, but writers of that period, and of a still earlier date, make mention of it as of a common and well-known plant. Thus we find Tusser, who wrote before that time, saying,—

be green: the leaves hereof consist of divers parts, and are covered with a whitish barke, the branches are more divided into wings, about which are certaine little ones, of an odd number, something broad, more long than round, smooth, and somewhat fat, of a gray colour, or greenish blew the floures in the tops of the branches are of a pale yellow, consisting of four little leaves, something hollow, in the middle of which standeth up a little head or button, four-square, seldom five-square, containing as many coffers as it hath corners, being compassed about with divers little yellow threds, out of which hang pretie fine tips, of one colour. The seed groweth in the little coffers: the root is woody, and fastened with many strings. This rue hath a very strong and rank smell, and a biting taste: it joyeth in sunnie and open places: it prospereth in rough and brickie ground.

Among the ancient Greeks and Romans this herb was held in great esteem. The Greeks used it, together with parsley, for the bordering of their gardens, and as the gardens could not be entered without passing this border, it became a proverb among them, when any persons were about to enter on an undertaking, but had not yet taken any steps towards it, "You are not yet arrived at the parsley and rue." The uses to which the ancients applied this plant were many of them very superstitious, and it was generally believed that the efficacy of the plant was enhanced by stealing it from a neighbour's garden. In Aristotle's time rue was worn about the neck as a charm against witchcraft.

That rue was planted to a considerable extent among the Romans appears from the directions of Pliny to rue gatherers, that they keep their hands well gloved, to avoid the blisters which the pungency of this herb is apt to produce. The same author notices the poisonous nature of the juice of rue, when taken in too great quantity, especially that drawn from the rue which grew in Macedonia, about the river Aliacmon, and in Galatia, and states that juice of hemlock destroys this poisonous quality. The juice of rue was kept in boxes made of brass or copper, and was used against the sting of serpents, scorpions, bees, hornets, &c., and for the bite of mad dogs. It was employed to foment the limbs of persons benumbed with cold: it was drunk with wine to cure the head-ache: it was taken likewise to prevent the consequences of excess in drinking. The leaves were eaten by engravers, carvers, and painters, as a preservative to the eye-sight: others just touched the corners of their eyes with the juice, to cure weakness of vision. A drink was made from it for the cure of all complaints incident to four-footed animals: its reputed virtues are, in fact, too numerous and too contradictory to be recounted here.

Besides the medicinal uses for which this herb was valued among the Romans, it was also esteemed on account of the flavour it imparted to their wines. Columella, in speaking of it, says,—

And rue, which the Palladian berries' taste excels; and Pliny informs us that when Cornelius Cethegus was chosen consul with Quintius Flaminius, he gave to the people, after the election, a largess of new wine, aromatized with rue. This would probably be very repugnant to modern taste, for this herb is intolerably bitter. The leaves of rue are said to have formed a principal ingredient in the famous antidote to poison, used by Mithridates, king of Pontus. This antidote, with slight alterations, has been in use for nearly nineteen centuries, and is still employed on the Continent. It has been exploded in Britain, and laughed at as an absurd farrago, ever since Dr. Heberden published his Antitheriaca. Pliny tells us that the weasel is so well acquainted with the virtues and powers of rue, that before he attacks the serpent he eats the herb to prevent the poison from taking effect. Macer, who wrote his Latin poem about twenty years before the Christian era, notices the same thing, and an old naturalist has given the following translation of the lines:

And weezels teach, it can withstand strong poyson's spite, Which, when they are about with serpents black to fight, In wondrous sort do first of all rue nibble, eat, and bite. titioners and herbalists of our own country, we shall find If we look into the writings of the old medical practhe qualities of this plant described in much the same exaggerated strain that we have noticed in the ancient authors of Greece and Rome. One tells us that the very smell of rue has been known to preserve from infection during pestilence, and therefore we are to wear a nosegay of it whenever we visit a person ill of any contagious disease; and that if we would be still farther secured from danger, we must chew some of the leaves, or eat of a conserve of rue. Another affirms that by eating the leaves of rue, persons may cure themselves of the king's evil. A third tells us that the juice of rue, made hot in the rind of a pomegranate, and dropped remedy for shingles, St. Anthony's fire, and other disinto the ears, is a cure for the ear-ache, and is also a orders; that the herb itself, a little boiled or scalded. kept in pickle, and eaten, is good for dimness of the eyes, and, boiled in vinegar, relieves shortness of breath to it the virtue of curing gout and dropsy, and of reand pain in the chest, side, or joints. A fourth ascribes moving ringworm, warts, and all diseases of the skin. A fifth pronounces it to be excellent in all illnesses of the stomach which proceed from a cold cause, and only full of its praises, that at the close of his remarks he dangerous in the too frequent use of it; and a sixth is so declares that the greatest commendation he can bestow upon it falls short of its merits.

extravagant eulogiums, or induced, by this slight mention But we would not have our readers misled by these of them, to employ the herb in the way, or for the puropinions of modern and better-skilled persons, who poses above named. Let them rather attend to the assure us that its usefulness is uncertain and unimportant, and who at the same time acquaint us that large pain of the stomach and bowels, head-ache, delirium, and and repeated doses produce parching thirst, burning

death.

the cultivated sort, and therefore more caution is reWild rue is much more energetic in its action than quired in using it. Gerard declares it to be virulent and pernicious, and says that it sometimes "fumeth out a vapour or air, so hurtful that it scorcheth the face of other accidents: it venometh their hands that touch it, him that looketh upon it, raising up blisters, wheales, and and will infect the face also, if it be touched with them before they be clean washed, wherefore it is not to be admitted into meat or medicine."

Rue is a hardy shrub, and is easily cultivated by planting the seeds, or slips, or cuttings, early in the spring months. It blossoms in July and August, or, if it be in a warm country, or in a sheltered situation, still earlier. According to Pliny, there is such friendship between it and the fig-tree that it prospers nowhere so well as under a fig-tree. Plutarch notes the same circumstance in his first booke of the Symposiacks or Feasts, and says it becomes more sweet and mild in such situations, because it takes away some of the sweetness of the fig-tree, and parts with some of its own bitter flavour.

CHRISTIANITY is not a latitudinarian religion, proposing a variety of independent doctrines, and leaving to the choice of its professors, which they will embrace, and which they will reject: but it is a religion precise and definite; it proposes a system of truths, mutually connected with and dependent on each other; it represents those truths as the fit tious belief and profession of them it promises happiness; on objects of a Christian's faith; and to a sincere and consciena wilful disbelief and rejection of them it denounces woe. -BISHOP MANT.

FRESH-WATER FISH,

INTRODUCTION.

Each rising charm the bounteous stream bestows,
The grass that thickens, and the flower that blows.
And while the vale the humid wealth imbibes.
The fostering wave sustains the finny tribes:
The carp, with golden scales, in wanton play,
The trout in crimson-speckled glory gay;
The red-finned roach, the silver-coated eel';
The pike, whose haunt the twisted roots conceal;
The healing tench, the gudgeon, perch, and bream;
And all the sportive natives of the stream.

Fishes were arranged by Linnæus in six principal orders, and subdivided into several tribes. Four of these were marked by the position of their ventral or belly fins, and two by their gills, But the most approved arrangement is that of Cuvier, who places fishes in the fourth class of organic beings, the first three comprising beasts, birds, and reptiles. The class of fishes he divides into two sub-classes, viz., 1st, cartilaginous, and 2nd, osseous fishes. In the former the bones are gristly, and in the latter firm, although far less compact than in the higher orders of animals.

The general form of fishes is cylindrical, pointed more or less at each end, and slightly compressed at the sides; but this form is subject to many extraordinary variations, adapted to the economy of the animal; some fish are short and round-others are elongated;-some are compressed-others depressed: the most common form, however, is that first given, a familiar example of which is presented by the mackerel, which exhibits, as Mr. Yarrell remarks, "the highest degree of elegance in shape, and when recently taken from the water, is so rich and so varied in its colour, as to be fairly entitled to be considered one of the most beautiful among British fishes."

It is almost superfluous to remark that the forms of fishes are admirably adapted to their general habits and economy, because we know how much gracious provision is made by the Almighty for all His creatures. This fact is so constantly witnessed by the naturalist, and he sees it illustrated in so many thousand ways, almost at every advancing step which his improving knowledge leads him, that while it constitutes a principal charm in the study of natural history, it often brings up to his mind the gentle monition of the Saviour, that God, who forgetteth not the sparrows, who feedeth the ravens and clotheth the grass of the field, will not discontinue His watchful care over those whom He has declared to be far better than they.

The external form of fishes tends to celerity and ease of motion: man has imitated this modelling in the build of those ships in which the quickest despatch is needful; but human competition against the perfection of nature's works always fails, for all the larger fishes can not only overtake the fastest-sailing vessel, but play around it, apparently without any unusual effort.

Fishes are furnished with certain protecting organs, which have been divided into the three distinct processes of skin, scales, and spines. The skin consists of the dermis, or true skin, a mucous tissue, and an epidermis, or cuticle. The mucous tissue, which in all animals is the seat of colour, is remarkable in fishes for its brilliant tints and iridescent reflections. The cuticle is generally covered with a mucous secretion, which also extends to the scales. The scales when viewed by the microscope present a wonderful and beautiful construction: they serve many important purposes in the general economy of fishes. The sharp spinous appendages, which are placed in different parts of the body in different fishes, seem intended as weapons either of defence or of offence.

The inhabitants of the waters as well as those of the land depend upon the oxygen of the atmosphere for respiration: the quantity of air necessary to sustain the life of a fish is smaller than that required by warm-blooded animals; but a greater or less supply of air is essential to every living being. The death of fish in a severe frost is in consequence of the congelation of the surface of the water, whereby the external air is excluded: the poor animals below the sheet of ice must perish unless an opening be made to admit the air: we see the fishes themselves bear witness to the fact that they cannot live without air, in the eagerness with which the suffocating creatures crowd round any opening made in the ice. The inconvenience they suffer is so great as to deprive them on these occasions of their natural timidity, for they can be caught by the hand without difficulty. The peculiar motion of the fish's mouth and gill-lids as if in the constant act of drinking, (whence the vulgar saying, "as thirsty as a fish,") is nothing more than the act of respiration. The gills, which act the part of lungs, are placed externally: they may be described as consisting, in the bony fishes, of four arched bones placed in succession close behind the mouth on each side, and covered by an operculum or gill-lid. On these arched bones are spread out several fine laminæ, or thin membranous folds, in which the artery bringing the blood from the heart, spreads itself out into very numerous and minute ramifications. The operculum is moveable by means of muscles attached to it. The fish in respiring takes a mouthful of water, and passing it to the back of its mouth allows it to remain there a moment in contact with the gills, through which at the same time the blood is passing freely. Water, exposed to the air, always contains a portion of that fluid, and the air thus dissolved by the water acts upon the fish's blood; the fish then lifts its