Each is published as a single edition strictly limited to 300 copies from the original watercolour studies, and printed in light-fast inks. Each is numbered and signed by the artist.
The brown hare is around 55cm long and weighs around 3.6 - 5kg, with the female weighing slightly more than the male. They live in the open on farmland, spending daytime lying in forms (a shallow depression usually in long grass, heather or rushes). Hares rely on their extraordinary acute hearing to give sufficient warning of predators, and an astonishing turn of speed to escape. Their long hind legs can power them to 35 miles per hour, and to jump a height of 2m. She or Puss (hares are always colloquially referred to as feminine) has a sensitive nose like a rabbit, and a split or hare-lip. They appreciate variety in their diet of grass and cereal crops, mushrooms and shoots and will range for miles in search of a choice morsel: parsley is one of their favourite foods.
The brown hare is a highly excitable and eccentric animal, which, particularly in spring can behave quite strangely. March is the time of year traditionally associated with the lunatic antics of courting hares, when groups of several males (jack-hares) will pursue a female (doe) in a chaotic free-for-all display. During their dispute over the doe, the jacks have boxing matches when they rise up on their hind legs, box and batter each other with their forepaws. Jack and doe may also have heated and vicious arguments; if however the jack is too persistent, the doe will box at him, rising up on her hind legs, keeping head and shoulders above him. She can then box down at him to prevent any attempt he makes at mating. When a jack has won a doe, he rarely stays with her for more than a day or two - long enough to ensure a successful mating. This gives rise to the expression 'as mad as a March Hare'. The doe has several litters each year starting at the end of February and continuing until mid-October. She gives birth to between 3 and 5 leverets in one place and then moves them to different forms, where they lie completely still; and where she visits each one regularly, to suckle them. From the moment of birth, fully furred, and with their eyes wide open, hares live in the open,: they never close their eyes again, even to blink or sleep, and must depend on wary concealment to survive. Unlike most nocturnal animals which seek cover in a moonlit night, hares sit out in the middle of fields. Occasionally during the mating season, up to twenty or so hares have been seen sitting motionless in a circle (hare parliament) under the moonlight. This for many people explains the hare's madness, and its association with the moon in many countries and religions. There is much of the mysterious behaviour of the hare that remains steeped in folklore and cultures worldwide; and it is regarded sacred in many religions with its association with moon gods and goddesses and its potent image of sexuality and witchcraft.