RABBIT. 79 



numerous doublings of the course, a hare has been known 

 to run upwards of four miles in twelve minutes. Hares, 

 when tamed, have been taught to perform many amusing 

 tricks ; and the account which Mr. Cowper has given of 

 his tame Hares, will not easily be forgotten by any per- 

 son who has read it. They are solitary animals ; and 

 produce two, sometimes three, and rarely four young 

 ones at a litter. The fur of the Hare is employed in the 

 manufacture of hats ; and vast numbers of their skins 

 are annually imported from Russia and Siberia into 

 England. The flesh, though with us much esteemed as 

 food, was anciently forbidden by the Druids and 

 Britons, and is at this day prohibited by the Jews and 

 Mahometans. 



Rabbit. In some parts of England, where the soil is 

 sandy and incapable of deriving much benefit from cul- 

 tivation, these animals afford, perhaps, greater advan- 

 tages to the proprietor, than any other mode in which the 

 land can be employed. Rabbit-warrens are frequently 

 rendered very lucrative. The English counties most 

 celebrated for them are, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and 

 Cambridgeshire. The fur of the Rabbit is a valuable 

 material in the manufacture of hats, and their bodies are 

 in great request for the table. They usually form their 

 burrows on the slope of some gentle ascent, in a zigzag 

 shape, enlarging them at the bottom, and forming there 

 a comfortable nest. In these the female produces her 

 young ones, generally seven or eight in number, and 

 this several times in the year. Their fecundity is such, 

 that if no obstacles of any kind intervened, it is sup- 

 posed to be possible for the progeny of a single pair, to 

 amount to more than a million in the course of four 



