NATURAL HISTORY. 217 



earth. I have seen others, which have gone along 

 one side of a hedge and returned by the other; 30 that 

 there was only the thickness of the hedge between the 

 dogs and them. I have seen others, which, after they 

 had been chased for half an hour, have mounted an 

 old wall of six feet height, and taken refuge in a hole 

 covered with ivy." 



The nature of the soil has a great influence on these 

 as well as on every other animal. The hares of the 

 mountains are larger and fatter than those of the plains, 

 and they are also of a different colour ; the former 

 being browner on the body, and whiter about the neck, 

 than the latter, which are more inclined to red. On 

 high mountains, and in the northern countries, they 

 become white in the winter, and in summer regain 

 tiieir ordinary colour. 



THE RABBIT. 



THOUGH the hare and the rabbit are externally, as 

 well as internally, very much alike, yet they fbrm two 

 distinct and separate species. 



The fecundity of the rabbit is even greater than 

 that of the hare. Without crediting, however, what 

 Wotten has advanced, that one pair being left in art 

 island, produced six thousand in one year, it is certain 

 that these creatures multiply so prodigiously in coun- 

 tries which are proper for the breed, that the earth 

 cannot furnish them with subsistence. They destroy 

 herbs, roots, grain, fruit, and even trees and shrubs ; 

 and, were it not for the dog and the ferret, they would 

 reduce the country to a desert. The rabbit not only 

 engenders and produces oftener than the- hare, but it 



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