THE HARE KIl^D. 



9S 



apartment at the end is warmly ftuccoed with mofs and hay. This work 

 is very laborious, and performed in common. Here they pafs three 

 parts of their lives; in ftormy weather, while it rains, and during dan- 

 ger i they never ftir out ex'cept in fine weather, nor ever go far from 

 home. When abroad, one is a centinel j and when ah ehemjr, a man^ 

 a dog, or a bird of prey, approaches, apprifes its companions with a 

 whittle. They ftore up no food ; at the approach of the winter, they 

 clofc the two entrances of their habitation with fuch folidity, that it is 

 cafier to dig up the earth any where elfe. At this time they are very 

 fat, and fome weigh above twenty pounds ; they continue fo long, but 

 by degrees begin to wafte, and are ufually very lean by the end of win- 

 ter. When this retreat is opened, the family is difcovered, each rolled 

 into a ball, and covered under the hay, apparently lifelefs ; they may be 

 taken away, and even killed, without teftifying any great pain. Gradual 

 and gentle warmth revives them i but they die if too fuddenly broughc 

 near the fire. 



This torpor is produced by congelation of their blood, which is natu- 

 rally cold (not above io° of heat) j their internal heat feldom exceeds 

 that of the air. Thefe animals, therefore, become torpid, when the 

 external cold is too powerful for the fmall quantity of heat in their bo- 

 dies, /'. e. when the thermometer equals ten degrees above congelation. 

 This Mr. Buffon experienced in the bat, the dormoufe, and the hedge- 

 hog, and with great juftice extends the analogy to the marmotte ; ex- 

 treme cold would kill them (if the heat of the air be above ten degrees, 

 thefe animals revive). In this ftate, the blood fcarcely moving, or 

 only in the greater vefTels, they want no nourilhment to repair what it 

 wears away J they become leaner in proportion to the flow attrition of 

 their fluids, but not perceptibly, till after fome months, having juft 

 fufficient motion in their fluids to keep off^ putrefaftion, and juft fufH- 

 cient nourifliment to fupply the waft:e of their languid circulation, they 

 continue rather feebly alive than fleeping. 



Thefe animals produce once a yearj bring three or four; they grow 

 very faft ; live nine or ten years ; are chiefly found in the Alps, where 

 they prefer the brow of the higheft mountains, and the funny fide. The 

 inhabitants, when they obferve the hole, generally ftay till winter before 

 they open it; for if they begin too foon, the animal wakes, and, having 

 a furprifing faculty of digging, makes its hole deeper in proportion as 

 they follow. 



R z This 



