704 



H A R E. 



paces from each other ; so that when we meet with 

 one young hare we may be pretty certain of finding 

 more within a very short distance. The hare arrives 

 at maturity in one year, and is supposed to live eight 

 or nine ; but it is presumed that a small number, 

 comparatively, are allowed to die of old age, for 

 dogs of all kinds pursue them by instinct ; the cat 

 and the weasel tribes are constantly lying in ambush, 

 and practising their wary arts to seize them ; while 

 birds of prey are still more formidable enemies, as 

 against them no swiftness can avail, nor retreat afford 

 security ; and lastly, man, more powerful than all, sacri- 

 fices ereat numbers, for his pastime or his subsistence. 



The hare is rarely found in very hilly or mountain- 

 ous situations ; neither is it often found in places 

 much exposed to the wind, especially when it blows 

 from the north or south ; its favourite residence being 

 in rich and somewhat dry and flat grounds. The 

 hare-finders and shepherds remark, that the hares on 

 the downs have a variety of seats, which they shift 

 from time to time, as the weather directs, generally 

 ascending to the more elevated grounds when rain 

 prevails. Their food consists of various vegetables, 

 but they seem to prefer those of a milky succulent 

 quality, and to be very partial to pinks, carnations, 

 parsley, birch, and laburnum. They will prey on the 

 bark of almost every tree during winter, and they 

 are often very injurious to young plantations. Their 

 cry, which has been compared to that of an infant, 

 is seldom heard, except in cases of distress or sur- 

 prise. They are taken in some countries by a call 

 imitative of that between the male and female. 



The hare is naturally of a gentle disposition, 

 although not very susceptible of strong attachment, 

 and when taken young may be tamed with very little 

 difficulty. Shy and timid as it undoubtedly is in its 

 native haunts, yet, when domesticated, it often as- 

 sumes a forward and even a petulant demeanour. 

 In respect of disposition, however, a very marked di- 

 versity probably obtains among different individuals, 

 as has been finely exemplified by Cowper the poet, 

 in his account of three which he watched himself. 



As an article of food the flesh of the hare has been 

 in high esteem from very remote antiquity; awd riot- 

 withstanding the additions which modern luxury has 

 made to the furnishings of the table, it still maintains 

 its character. In the opinion of Martial the epi- 

 grammatic poet, the flesh of the hare was superior to 

 that, of every other four-footed animal ; and Horace 

 represents the hare's " wing" as being among the 

 most highly prized of Roman luxuries. In those 

 countries of middle and southern Europe which are 

 but thinly peopled and partially cultivated, as com- 

 pared with the British islands, the number of hares 

 which are taken in the course of the year is immense ; 

 and the skins of them form an extensive branch of 

 commerce, being exported for the hat manufacturer, 

 and also used locally as very warm articles of clothing. 

 It is understood that the small kingdom of Bohemia 

 alone furnishes nearly half a million of skins in the 

 course of the year, and that Austria Proper furnishes 

 nearly double that number ; while the supply from 

 southern Russia and western Siberia is understood to 

 be still greater. 



Though the hare is considered as one of the most 

 harmless and timid of all animals, excepting in so far 

 as it commits depredations upon the vegetable king- 

 dom, it has not escaped being made an object of super- 

 stitious dread ; neither is it quite exempted from those 



foolish, and perhaps instinctive, prejudices which cer- 

 tain individuals of the human race have against cer- 

 tain animals which cannot in the nature of things do 

 them any harm. It is reported of a celebrated French 

 commander, who was an exceedingly brave man, that 

 he always fainted at the sight of a hare. In our own 

 country, when the belief in witchcraft was general, the 

 hare was regarded as one of the most formidable ani- 

 mals, the one, in short, into which old women most 

 frequently transformed themselves, by the instrumen- 

 tality of the devil, in order to wreak their vengeance 

 on the rest of mankind. Nor has this prejudice been 

 entirely exploded, for there are still many of the fish- 

 ing villages where a hare's foot cannot be mentioned 

 without exciting the greatest terror, where a hare 

 thrown into a boat would prevent that boat from going 

 to sea ; and where, if such a catastrophe were to 

 happen as a hare to run along the beach in front of all 

 the fishermen's huts, it would shut them up as effec- 

 tually during the day as if each were guarded by a 

 regiment of soldiers. 



THE ALPINE HARE (L. variabilis). This is the 

 only species of hare which is found in the British 

 islands besides the common hare mentioned in the 

 former part of this article. The present one is far 

 from common in our islands, though by no means rare 

 in some other parts of the world. It is found, how- 

 ever; but we believe only on the Scottish mountains, 

 the wildest and most remote of these, and never lower 

 down than two thousand or fifteen hundred feet above 

 the level of the sea. It is not so long in the legs as 

 the common hare, probably because the places which 

 it inhabits contains fewer enemies which can pursue 

 it on the ground. It inhabits higher up than the 

 locality of every predatory quadruped ; and running 

 would be but a vain defence against the rush of the 

 mountain eagle, which is the chief if not the only ani- 

 mal which this hare has to dread in the fastnesses of 

 its mountains. The difference of length in the legs 

 is about an inch in the fore ones, and nearly tv\o 

 inches in the hind ; so that it is an animal of more 

 uniform course, and less disposed to leaping, than the 

 common hare. In the body its dimensions are nearly 

 the same ; and from the specimens which we have 

 examined in their native localities, we are disposed to 

 consider it as being altogether thicker and weightier 

 than the common hares of the lowlands in the same 

 parts of the country. One of the most remarkable 

 peculiarities of this animal, and one in which it agrees 

 with the ermine among mammalia, and the ptarmigan 

 among birds, is the seasonal change of its colour, ex- 

 cepting one part, which remains constant during the 

 whole year, and is its permanent characteristic colour 

 as a hare ; this is, the tips of the ears are black at all 

 seasons. In summer the colour on the upper part is 

 dusky, more or less inclining to fawn colour, and some- 

 times dappled, at least in the intermediate seasons. 

 In winter it is altogether white, with the exception of 

 the tips of the ears as aforesaid. The following 

 account of the changes of its fur is from the 

 second volume of the Edinburgh Philosophical Jour- 

 nal, and we believe it is correct : " The varying hare 

 becomes white in winter. This remarkable change 

 takes place in the following manner : About the 

 middle of September the grey feet begin to be white, 

 and before the month ends all the four feet are white, 

 and the ears and muzzle are of a brighter colour. 

 The white colour gradually ascends the legs and 

 thighs, and we observe under the grey hair whitish 



