GNAWING ANIMALS KODENTS 159 



are black. When they are an eighth of an inch 

 long the tips turn brown, giving the animal its 

 general rufons appearance, yet when fully developed 

 the basal portion of each hair is white. The eye of 

 the hare is large and prominent. Mr. Millais 

 describes it as '^ a hard, cold, uninteresting eye/^ 

 and quotes Zola, who speaks of it as " a bleak and 

 frigid stare, which does not seem to see ; an ever- 

 haunting, absent look, as of one whom her sufferings 

 overwhelmed.^^ '^ Its iris,^^ says Mr. Drane, " does 

 not contract as in the cat^s eye and hawk^s eye, 

 giving great variety of expression, but it glows like 

 those of the Felida9.'' 



Hares have huge incisor teeth, which they may 

 often be heard in the act of grinding down when in 

 repose. To assist them in this process they need 

 coarse sand, which serves them also as a mechanical 

 digestive and laxative. 



The hare common in England and Scotland is 

 known as Lepus eiiropseus. This species extends all 

 over Europe, except the extreme north of Eussia 

 and Scandinavia, but curiously enough it is not the 

 hare of Ireland, and all attempts to acclimatise it 

 there have failed. The Irish hare is the variable 

 hare, Lepus timidus hihernicus (Yarr), a variety of 

 the mountain or blue hare, found in the hilly 

 districts of Scotland, and known as Lepus timidus 

 (Linnaeus). 



The mountain hare is common in other parts of 

 Europe, and extends as far east as Japan. 



Hares frequent open cultivated lands and bare 

 hills. During the day the hare sits crouched up and 



