This animal was regarded by Moses as unclean, and unfit for food ; it is consider ed in the same light also by the Mahome tans. The Romans used to value it highly for the table. By the ancient Britons it was considered as partaking somewhat of a sacred character, which forbade their application of it to so ordinary a purpose. Hares have been seen in this country perfectly white, as in more northern re gions, and accounts of horned hares have been given to the public upon unques.
tionable authority, though such animals are of extremely rare occurrence. For the Common Hare, see Mammalia, Plate XV. fig. 3.
L. variabilis, or the varying hare, is an inhabitant of the loftiest territories of the north, both of Europe and America. Its colour in summer is a tawny grey, and in winter it is changed to a perfect white. It never associates with the common bare, and rarely descends from its elevated haunts into the rallies ; though occasion ally, in a rigorous winter, numbers of these animals are seen to quit the frozen elevations of Siberia, and migrate for subsistence to the woody and sheltered plains.
L. cuniculus, or the rabbit, is found in most temperate climates, but not far to the north. Its fecundity is extreme, and in some countries has occasioned it to be considered as one of the greatest annoy ances. It will breed, in favourable circum stances, seven times in a year, and pro duces about eight young ones at a time. It is most strikingly similar to the hare in general appearance ; but while the hare prefers the uncovered field, the rabbit burrows in the ground. It has sharp and long claws for this purpose, and chooses dry and chalky soils, in which it can with the greatest ease construct its mansion. It lives to the age of about eight years. The female prepares a bed for its young before their birth, from its own coat, of the finest and warmest materials, nurses them with incessant assiduity, and is obliged often to secrete them from the malignant attempts of the male, which have been known, in many instances, to be fatal to them. In England, particularly
in Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, rabbits are abundant, and their fur is of equal value with their flesh.
The hare and rabbit never intermix, and appear to contemplate each other without the slightest sympathy. The principal difference between these two animals consists in the proportional length of the hind legs to that of the back. For the Rabbit, see Mammalia, Plate X V. fig. 4.
L. alpinus, or the Alpine hare, is about the size of aGuinea pig, is a native of the Altaic mountains, and burrows in the clefts of the rocks, or resides in the hol lows of trees. These animals avoid the glare of day, and appear only by night, or in obscure and dull weather. They col lect in summer a preparation of herbage, the most delicate and fragrant, and having dried it with the utmost care, set it aside in compact heaps for their subsistence duritg winter. These heaps are occa sionally of the height and depth of seve ral feet, and are sometimes of extreme service to the horses of the sable hunters in those dreadful regions, preserving them from absolutely starving ; a fate, however, to which the little labourers are exposed in consequence of these depre dations.
L. pusillus, inhabits the south-east of Russia, is solitary, and rarely to be ob served, even where most abundant. It is only about six inches in length. It generally indicates its residence by its sounds, resembling those of a quail. Its pace consists of a succession of leaps, rather than steps. It sleeps with its eyes open, is particularly gentle, passes but little of its time in sleep, and is perfectly familiarized in the course of two or three days after it is taken.