MARCH HARES 



" MAD as a March hare " is an expression which 

 goes with " Mad as a hatter," and there is as 

 much of a mystery about the one as about the other. 

 The learned Brewer conjectures that " mad as 

 a hatter " is a corruption of " mad as an atter " 

 (the Saxon for adder) ; and he makes the search- 

 ing suggestion that hares are reputed mad in 

 March because it is their mating season. One's 

 only difficulty with this is that March is the mating 

 season with three -fourths of the animated creation 

 in the temperate zone, and many other creatures 

 get quite as mad over their love affairs as puss. 

 But he who seeks an explanation of popular lore 

 about hares has a big task on hand, part of it 

 being the natural history of the witch. 



Hares begin the business of love-making in 

 February, and sometimes earlier, and if high spirit 

 is madness they can be mad enough. Though 

 ordinarily as timid creatures as any that run on 

 legs, a couple of bucks that have placed their 

 affections on the same doe manifest a most 

 amazing pugnacity and valour. It is even said that 

 they have been known to fight a duel to the 

 death, and certainly in quite a common encounter 

 in the lists of love they make the fur fly. Possibly 



