360 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1896^ 



this manoeuvre as often as its pursuer comes nearly within gunshot. 

 * * * According to Indian information, the Polar Hare brings 

 forth once in the year and from two to four young at a time." 



Respecting the Greenland Hare, Captain Koldewey of the Ger- 

 man-Arctic Expedition of 1869-70, writes:-' "The European hare 

 is remarkable for its long and rapid, hasty flight. The Greenland 

 Hare, on the contrary, sits as if nailed down in its rocky refuge, 

 however near the hunter may pass to him. Sometimes one sees the 

 mountain slopes dotted with white spots, which, from their motion- 

 lessness, might be taken for snow ; but they are only white hares. 

 They are about the size of our own hares, but their flesh, like that 

 of the Alpine Hare, is insipid. Hare hunting in Greenland often 

 gives rise to the drollest scenes. Their hearing appears to be even 

 weaker than their sight. Payer once stood near a hare which was 

 startled by repeated firing, but had confined its flight to a few steps. 

 The creature was nibbling the moss quietly. Payer took out his 

 sketch book and drew it in all the different positions which, in its 

 uneasiness at the conversation and laughter of his companions, it 

 assumed." 



This relates to the hares of northeastern Greenland. H. W. 

 Feilden, in the Appendix to Nares' Voyage to the Polar Sea, thus 

 describes the Hares of north Grinnell Land : " The Polar hare was 

 found, though in scanty numbers, along the shores of Grinnell Land 

 and its footprints were seen on the snow-clad ice of the Polar Sea, 

 by Captain Markham and Lieutenant Parr, in lat. 83° 10' N., a 

 distance of about 20 miles north of the nearest land. * * * * On 

 February 14, two weeks before the sun reappeared at midday, the 

 temperature minus 56°, I started one from its burrow, a hole about 

 four feet in length, scraped horizontally into a snowdi'ift. I have no 

 doubt the same burrow is regularly occupied, as this one was dis- 

 colored by thefeet of the animal and a quantity of the fur was sticking 

 to the sides ; all around, the hare had been scratching up the snow 

 and feeding on Saxifraga opposUifolia. Even where exposed to the 

 wind, this hardy plant had delicate green buds, showing on the brown, 

 withered surface of last year's growth. The hare does not tear up 

 this plant by the roots, but nibbles off" the minute green shoots. 

 The number of young that we found in gravid females varied from 

 seven to eight, which is much in excess of that produced in Great 

 Britain by Lepus variabilis, from whicli naturalists have found dif- 



22 



Germ. Arc. Exp., Mercier's transl., 1874, p. 483. 



