HARE- BELLS HARP A. 



700 



they disappear, and by the time that the snow is off 

 the ground they are nearly gone. 



Tiiey are very quick and active in their motions ; 

 but they are so timid that they are not easily tamed, 

 and in a state of nature they are so small and feeble 

 that they are exposed to many enemies. During the 

 day they are the victims of birds of prey ; and in the 

 night, the time when in general they are most abroad, 

 they are captured by lynxes, by martens, and by 

 various others of the weasel tribe, 



THE CALLING PIKA (L. pusillus). This is also a 

 Siberian animal, and it is the smallest of the whole 

 tribe, being only between six and seven inches in 

 length, and weighing between three and four ounces. 

 Its fur is very soft, close, and long, brindled with 

 brown and grey on the upper part, with the extremi- 

 ties of the feet dull yellow, the under part of the body 

 dirty white, and the breast and lips the same colour 

 but purer. The ears are triangular, and margined and 

 pointed with white. The head is rather larger in 

 proportion than in the other two species, but the 

 animal altogether is very handsome, and its very mi- 

 nute size renders it an object of interest with the 

 curious. 



Like the others, it is a social animal, and burrows 

 in the ground. Their burrows are in general deeper 

 than those of the others ; and they are usually formed 

 under bushes or tangled vegetation of some sort or 

 other. During the day they are generally concealed 

 in these subterranean retreats ; but they come abroad 

 during the night, at which time they are understood 

 to see as well as during the day. In the morning 

 and the evening they call to each other with a cry 

 which has been compared to that of the quail, and 

 which, notwithstanding the small size of the animal, 

 may be heard at the distance of more than a mile. 

 It is on this account that the epithet " calling" has 

 been added to their names. The uttering of this cry 

 seems to be a matter of considerable exertion to 

 them ; for it is attended with a motion of the neck 

 and head very similar to those of the dog when he 

 barks. When the weather is fine they are in general 

 silent during the day, but when it lowers, or is tem- 

 pestuous, they become noisy, and are, like many 

 oilier animals, a sort of natural indicators of the 

 weather. In the long winters of the country which 

 they inhabit, they form galleries under the snow, by 

 which they reach those shrubs on the bark of which 

 they feed without at all appearing on the surface. 

 In summer they eat grass and succulent leaves ; but 

 they are often reduced to great extremities in the 

 height of summer, when the moisture is dried up and 

 the plants withered from the ground. In such cases 

 they are sometimes reduced to feed on the droppings 

 of the larger herbaceous mammalia ; and they are 

 equally pinched for water, of which they drink freely 

 when it is to be had. 



These are very cleanly as well as very delicate 

 little animals, and keep their burrows very neat. 

 They are prolific, the females producing about six 

 on the average. The time of gestation has not been 

 ascertained ; but, from the analogy of the whole race, 

 it is presumed to be very short. The young are 

 produced with the eyes closed and without any fur 

 on their bodies ; but the fur begins to appear about 

 the eighth day, and the growth is very rapid. In 

 their dispositions, these little creatures are the gen- 

 tlest of all imaginable animals, and though, when in 

 a state of nature, they are very timid, they are very 



susceptible to kind usage, and even become very 

 tame. 



When awake, the sitting position is nearly spheri- 

 cal, and the animal about fills the hollow of the hand ; 

 autin sleeping, the body is more stretched out. Like 

 bares, they are leaping animals, but the shortness of 

 the hind legs renders the leap rather slow and awk- 

 ward ; and they are by no means swift animals upon 

 the ground. From the perfect formation of their 

 clavicles, they have a very free cross motion of the 

 fore legs, and can readily bring them to all parts of 

 their heads. They are, indeed, much in the habit of 

 applying the feet to all parts of their fur, which, from 

 its softness and the high temperature of these little 

 animals, offers a very favourite nucleus for insects. 

 One would be very apt to suspect that so small 

 animals would be but ill prepared to bear the rigours 

 of a Siberian winter ; the reverse is however the case. 

 They not only remain in a state of activity during 

 the utmost severity of the inclement season, but 

 maintain when the air is far below freezing a heat of 

 at least 104 or 105 degrees of the common ther- 

 mometer. Altogether, these miniature hares are very 

 interesting animals ; and they are not the less so, 

 that they are peculiar to a region of the world which 

 is peculiar both in its character and its productions. 



HARE-BELLS. Is the Scilla non scripta of 

 Linnaeus, and one of the most beautiful and common 

 British bulbous plants, growing plentifully in woods. 

 There are two or three varieties of it in gardens. 



HARP A (Lamarck ; Buccinum harpa, Linnaeus). 

 The whole of these beautiful shells were blended in 

 the genus Buccinum, by Linnasus, under the name of 

 B. Harpa. He appears to have considered them all 

 of one species, but as a more intimate knowledge of 

 malacology enables us to point out distinctive cha- 

 racters hitherto unknown or overlooked, the pro- 

 priety of constituting a distinct genus of these mol- 

 luscs becomes apparent, and they well deserve being 

 thus honoured ; indeed it is difficult to reconcile to 

 common sense from what cause the great naturalist 

 jumbled together in his genus Buccinum, shells so 

 totally different, even in their form, which was his 

 principal, if not only rule, without we imagine the 

 notch at the base of the aperture to have been his 

 guide in this instance. One general character emi- 

 nently distinguishes these molluscs, that of having 

 longitudinal parallel ribs, which are compressed, 

 sinuous, and sharp ; the upper extremity of each 

 armed with one or more projecting detached points, 

 giving the spire a coronated appearance ; the form 

 of the shell is oval, more or less inflated ; the aper- 

 ture, with a notch at the lower end of the canal ; the 

 columella is smooth, flat, and pointed at the base, the 

 last whorl larger than all the others united, the right, 

 side deeply excavated. It is doubtful if this mollusc 

 possesses an operculum or not. Lamarck distin- 

 g'uishes eight species of this genus, all of which ap- 

 pear to inhabit the Indian Ocean. One species from 

 the Mauritius has long been distinguished by collec- 

 tors, in consequence of its relative rarity and very 

 graceful configuration ; it is called the Harpa impe- 

 rialis, and known by the trivial name of the many- 

 ribbed, or many-ridged harp a name so appropriate 

 that Sowerby adopted it in preference to //. imperialis; 

 but excellent as //. multicostata is, it unfortunately 

 interferes with the established usages of olden time, 

 which have consecrated folly in more than one 

 instance, and we are obliged to bow to custom iu 



