THE HARE KIND. 



345 



AXIXtt AX.S OF THE HAKE SZND. 



INTRODUCTION. 



HAVING described in the last chapter a 

 tribe of minute, fierce, rapacious animals, I 

 come now to a race of minute animals of a 

 more harmless and gentle kind, that, without 

 being enemies to any, are preyed upon by all. 

 As nature has fitted the former for hostility, 

 so it has entirely formed the latter for evasion; 

 and as the one kind subsist by their courage 

 and activity, so the other find safety from their 

 swiftness and their fears. The hare is the 

 swiftest animal in the world for the time it 

 continues ; and few quadrupeds can overtake 

 even the rabbit when it has but a short way 

 to run. To this class also we may add the 

 squirrel, somewhat resembling the hare and 

 rabbit in its form and nature, and equally pret- 

 ty, inoffensive, and pleasing. 



If we were methodically to distinguish ani- 

 mals of the hare kind from all others, we might 

 say that they have but two cutting teeth above 

 and two below, that they are covered with a 

 soft downy fur, and that they have a bushy 

 tail. The combination of these marks might 

 perhaps distinguish them tolerably well; 

 whether from the rat, the beaver, the otter, 

 or any other most nearly approaching in form. 

 But, as I have declined all method that rather 

 tend to embarrass history than enlighten it, I 

 am contented to class these animals together 

 for no very precise reason, but because I find 

 a general resemblance between them in their 

 natural habits, and in the shape of their heads 

 and body. I call a squirrel an animal of the 

 hare kind, because it is something like a hare. 

 I call the paca of the same kind, merely be- 

 cause it is more like a rabbit than any other 

 animal I know of. In short, it is fit to erect 

 some particular standard in the imagination 

 of the reader, to refer him to some animal that 

 te knows, in order to direct him in conceiv- 



ing the figure of such as he does not know. 

 Still, however, he should be apprized that his 

 knowledge will be defective without an ex- 

 amination of each particular species; and that 

 saying an animal is of this or that particular 

 kind, is but a very trifling part of its history. 



Animals of the hare kind, like all others 

 that feed entirely upon vegetables, are inof- 

 fensive and timorous. As nature furnishes 

 them with a most abundant supply, they have 

 not that rapacity after food, remarkable in 

 such as are often stinted in their provision. 

 They are extremely active and amazingly 

 swift, to which they chiefly owe their protec- 

 tion; for being the prey of every voracious 

 animal, they are incessantly pursued. The 

 hare, the rabbit, and the squirrel, are placed 

 by Pyerius, in his Treatise of Ruminating Ani- 

 mals, among the number of those that chew 

 the cud ; but how far this may be true, I will 

 not pretend to determine. Certain it is, that 

 their lips continually move, whether sleeping 

 or waking. Nevertheless, they chew their 

 meat very much before they swallow it, and 

 for that reason I should suppose that it does 

 not want a second mastication. All these 

 animals use their fore-paws like hands ; they 

 are remarkably salacious, and are furnished 

 by nature with more ample powers than most 

 others for the business of propagation. They 

 are so very prolific, that were they not thin- 

 ned by the constant depredations made upon 

 them by most other animals, they would quick- 

 ly over-run the earth 



THE HARE. 



OF all these the hare is the largest, the 

 most persecuted, and the most timorous ; all 



