HARE. 



707 



of the open fields in North America, and indeed of 

 all the northern hemisphere, are chiefly of the genus 

 Lepus, we may be prepared to expect several new 

 species or varieties from this part of' America. 



THE To LAI HARE, or SIBERIAN RABBIT (L. Tolai). 

 This species is very abundant in the dry plains of 

 Siberia, and in those of central Asia, as far to the 

 southward as the northern slopes of the Himalaya 

 mountains ; but in the more southerly latitudes it 

 keeps to the cold and elevated districts. In some 

 particulars of its character it resembles the variable 

 hares of this country, which with climatal differences 

 extend more or less into the northern parts of both 

 continents, and also along the mountain tops farther 

 to the south. But although this species resembles the 

 Alpine, Arctic, or variable hares, in a good many 

 points, it has also no inconsiderable resemblance to 

 the rabbits, and this in the texture of its fur, the form 

 of its body, and its manners. When the Alpine hare 

 is found in such situations as that chase can be given 

 to it, it practices the same doublings and other ma- 

 noeuvres which are practised by common hares. The 

 species under consideration, on the contrary, seeks 

 for some retreat in holes of the earth or crannies of 

 the rock, where its pursuer cannot reach it. Its size 

 is about the same as that of the Alpine hare, and the 

 general proportions of its members are not very dif- 

 ferent, but its head is straigliter, longer, and more 

 compressed. The upper part is mottled with grey 

 and pale brown ; the under part of the body is white, 

 and that of the neck yellowish; the legs are yellowish, 

 the tail black above and white on the under side ; 

 and the tips of the ears are black. It does not change 

 its colour with the seasons, as is the case with the 

 Alpine hare, but its general tint is paler in winter 

 than in summer. 



THE BLACK-NECKED HARE (L. nlgricollis'). This 

 species is verv common in the stony and bushy hills 

 of central India ; and the Mahrattas call it Sussuh, as 

 is supposed from the whisking manner in which it 

 escapes from their sight. The upper part of the body 

 5s mottled reddish, the flanks, the thighs, the shoul- 

 ders, and the rump, mottled with greyish ; the tail 

 brownish grey above and white below. The outside 

 of the fore legs, the throat, and breast, are reddish ; 

 the top of the head mottled reddish ; the sides of the 

 head grey ; and the chin and under part of the body 

 white. The ears are white at the bases, reddish in 

 the middle, and blackish brown at the tips. On the 

 nape and upper part of the neck there is a large patch 

 of blackish brown, which extends some way down 

 the back, and also round the sides of the neck, so as 

 to form almost a complete collar. It is about the size 

 of a larjje rabbit ; and, besides being abundant in 

 India, it is plentiful in the eastern islands. 



There are numerous other species or varieties found 

 in southern Asia ; but they differ from each other 

 chiefly in colour, and the manners of some of them 

 are imperfectly known. 



THE EGYPTIAN HARE (L. Egi/pticim} is about the 

 size of a rabbit, but it has the curs longer in proportion 

 than even the common hare. It. is entirely of a (awn 

 colour on the upper part, with very few mottlings ; 

 and this colour extends to the breast. The under part 

 is white ; the tail black on the upper part ; the ears 

 reddish brown with black tips. The eye spot bright 

 fawn colour. 



In Southern Africa there are several species, which 

 are, generally speaking, redder in the colour than the 



hares of most other parts of the world. The Cape hare 

 is as large as the European one, and has the legs and 

 the ears much longer ; it is reddish grey on the upper 

 part and white on the under, with the tips of the ears 

 and the upper part of the tail black. The rock hare 

 of Southern Africa is smaller, and resembles this one 

 in shape ; but its colours are much brighter, and in 

 this respect it is usually accounted one of the gayest 

 of the whole family. The sand hare is another spe- 

 cies of Southern Africa, but, as its name imports, it 

 inhabits places of a different character from those 

 just mentioned : it has the habits of a rabbit, and is 

 less in size than the rabbits of Europe, but its colours 

 more resemble those of the Cape hares. 



THE BRAZILIAN HARE (L. Brazilicnsis) is perhaps 

 the smallest of all the true hares ; and it is remarka- 

 ble for the shortness of its fur, and still more so for 

 that of its tail. In consequence of the almost total 

 obliteration of the last appendage, it has sometimes 

 been called Lepus ccaudata, or the tailless hare. 

 Some describers of animals have confounded this with 

 the guinea pig, which is found in the same parts of 

 the world, but. the two are perfectly distinct, and this 

 one has the proper form of the hares and rabbits, 

 although, in respect of size, it is a mere miniature. 

 The length from the nose to the tail is about a foot 

 and a half; and the tail, which is round and without 

 produced hair, is about five-sixths of an inch more. 

 The fur on the upper part is blackish brown and fawn, 

 with reddish brown on the top of the head. The 

 cheeks are of a greyish colour, with a light band 

 passing over the eyes ; and all the under parts are 

 white. There are some coloured varieties ; but the 

 history of the species altogether is not very well 

 made out. 



These animals take after the hare rather than the 

 rabbit in their manners. They live in the woods, and 

 are not known in any instance to form burrows in the 

 ground, though thev sometimes take shelter in the 

 hollows of trees. Their general habit, however, is to 

 sit on tracks in the open places in the same manner 

 as hares. 



THE RAT HARES (Lagomys), of which a separate 

 sub-genus is made, do not differ much from the sub- 

 genus Lepus in those particulars of structure upon 

 which the characters of genera and sub-genera are 

 usually founded. Their teeth are the same, and so 

 are their feet, in their general structure ; but all the 

 feet are more nearly of the same length, much less 

 fitted for leaping, and the animals are much smaller 

 in size. All the known ones are inhabitants of Siberia, 

 where the}' spend the whole year without any climatal 

 migration worthy of notice. As one means of enabling 

 creatures so feeble, and having their average tempe- 

 rature so high, to exist, these animals have a great 

 disposition to collect magazines of provisions against 

 the time when the surface of a country in which the 

 weather is so severe as it is in Siberia affords them 

 little or nothing. Their principal characters are : the 

 ears proportionally smaller than in the hares ; the 

 sub-orbibd fossae simple ; the clavicle almost perfect, 

 so that they have a cross motion of the fore feet, and 

 can bring them to the mouth something in the same 

 way as squirrels ; the furrow in their large incisive 

 teeth of the upper jaw is very distinct, and gives each 

 tooth the appearance of being two; their cheek teeth 

 are only five on each side ; their legs aro much 

 shorter in proportion than those of the hares and rab- 

 bits ; and they are altogether a much less important 

 YY2 



