120 STUDIES IN ANIMAL LIFE. 



A history of the various attempts which have 

 been made to prove and disprove the fertility of 

 hybrids would lead us beyond our limits ; the curi- 

 ous reader is referred to the works cited below.* 

 One decisive case alone shall be given here, and no 

 one will dispute that it is decisive. 



The hare (lepus timidus) is assuredly of a distinct 

 species from the rabbit (lepus cuniculus). So dis- 

 tinct are these species, that any classification which 

 should range them as one would violate every ac- 

 cepted principle. The hare is solitary, the rabbit 

 gregarious; the hare lives on the surface of the 

 earth, the rabbit burrows under the surface ; the 

 hare makes her home among the bushes, the rabbit 

 makes a sort of nest for her young in her burrow 

 keeping them there till they are weaned ; the hare 

 has reddish-brown flesh, the rabbit white flesh ; 

 while the odor exhaled by each, and the flavor of 

 each, are unmistakably different. The hare has 

 many anatomical characters differing from those of 

 the rabbit, such as greater length and strength of 

 the hind legs, larger body, shorter intestine, thicker 

 skin, firmer hair, and different color. The hare 

 breeds only twice or thrice a year, and at each lit- 

 ter has only two or four; the rabbit will breed 

 eight times a year, and each time has four, six, 

 seven, and even eight young ones. Finally, the 



* ISIDORE GEOFFROY ST. HILAIRE : Hist. Nat. Generate des 

 Regnes Organiques, 1860, iii., 207 sq. BROCA : Memoire sur IHy- 

 bridite, in BROWN-SEQUARD'S Journal de la Physiologic, 1859. 



