THE HARE KIND. 



351 



the Mediterranean, we are told that they once 

 m i! ijilied in such numbers as to prove the 

 greatest nuisance to the natives. They at first 

 demanded military aid to destroy them ; but 

 soon after they called in the assistance of fer- 

 rets, which originally came from Africa, and 

 these, with much more ease and expedition, 

 contrived to lessen the calamity. In fact, 

 rabbits are found to love a warm climate, and 

 to be incapable of bearing the cold of the 

 north ; so that in Sweden they are obliged to 

 be littered in the houses. It is otherwise in all 

 the tropical climates, where they are extremely 

 common, and where they seldom burrow, as 

 with us. The English counties that are most 

 noted for these animals, are Lincolnshire, Nor- 

 folk, and Cambridgeshire. They delight in 

 grounds of a sandy soil, which are warmer than 

 those of clay ; and which also furnish a softer 

 and finer pasture. 



The tame rabbits are larger than the wild 

 ones, from their taking more nourishment, and 

 using less exercise ; but their flesh is not so 

 good, being more insipid and softer. In order 

 to improve it, they are chiefly fed upon bran, 

 and are stinted in their water ; for if indulged 

 in too great plenty of moist food, they are apt, 

 as the feeders express it, to grow rotten. The 

 hair or fur is a very useful commodity, and is 

 employed in England for several purposes, as 

 well when the skin is dressed with it on, as 

 when it is pulled off. The skins, especially 

 the white, are used for lining clothes, and are 

 considered as a cheap imitation of ermine. 

 The skin of the male is usually preferred, as 

 being the most lasting, but it is coarser ; that 

 on the belly in either sex, is the best and finest. 

 But the chief use made of rabbit's fur, is in the 

 manufacture of hats ; it is always mixed, in 

 certain proportions, with the fur of the beaver ; 

 and it is said to give the latter more strength 

 and consistence. 



The Syrian rabbit, like all other animals 

 bred in that country, is remarkable for the 

 length of its hair ; it falls along the sides in 

 wavy wreaths, and is, in some places, curled 

 at the end, like wool ; it is shed once a year 

 in large masses ; and it often happens that the 

 rabbit, dragging a part of its robe on the 

 ground, appears as if it had got another leg, or 

 a longer tail. There are no rabbits naturally 

 in America ; however, those that have been 

 carried from Europe, are found to multiply in 



the West India islands in great abundance. 

 In other parts of that continent, they have ani- 

 mals that in some measure resemble the rab- 

 bits of Europe ; and which most European 

 travellers have often called hares or rabbit*, as 

 they happened to be large or small. Their 

 giving them even the name will be a sufficient 

 excuse for my placing them among animals of 

 the hare kind ; although they may differ in many 

 of the most essential particulars. But before 

 we go to the new continent, we will first ex- 

 amine such as bear even a distant resemblance 

 to the hare kind at home. 



THE SQUIRREL. 



THERE are few readers that are not so well 

 acquainted with the figure of a Squirrel as 

 that of the rabbit ; but supposing it unknown 

 to any, we might give them some idea of its 

 form, by comparing it to a rabbit, with shorter 

 ears, and a longer tail. The tail, indeed, is 

 alone sufficient to distinguish it from all others, 

 as it is extremely long, beautiful, and bushy, 

 spreading like a fan, and which, when thrown 

 up behind, covers the whole body. This 

 serves the little animal for a double purpose ; 

 when erected, it serves, like an umbrella, as a 

 secure protection from the injuries of the heat 

 and cold ; and when extended, it is very in- 

 strumental in promoting these vast leaps that 

 the squirrel takes from tree to tree ; nay, some 

 assert that it answers still a third purpose, and 

 when the squirrel takes to the water, which it 

 sometimes does upon a piece of bark, that its 

 tail serves it instead of a sail." 



There are few wild animals in which there 

 are so many varieties as in the squirrel. The 

 common squirrel is of the size of a small rabbit, 

 and is rather of a more reddish brown. 



The belly and breast are white ; and the 

 ears beautifully ornamented with long tufts of 

 hair, of a deeper colour than that on the body. 

 The eyes are large, black, and lively ; the legs 

 are short and muscular, like those of the rab- 

 bit ; but the toes longer, and the claws sharp- 

 er, so as to fit it for climbing. When it eats, 

 or dresses itself, it sits erect, like the hare or 

 rabbit, making use of its fore legs as hands ; 

 and chiefly resides in trees. The gray Vir- 



Klein. Linnaeus. 



