HARE KIND. 117 



Hare is the swiftest animal in the world for the 

 time it continues ; and few quadrupeds can over- 

 take even the rabbit when it has but a short way 

 to run. To this class also we may add the squir- 

 rel, somewhat resembling . the hare and rabbit in 

 its form and nature, and equally pretty, inoffen- 

 sive, and pleasing. 



If we were methodically to distinguish animals 

 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 com- 

 bination of these marks might perhaps distinguish 

 them tolerably well, whether from the rat, the 

 beaver, the otter, or any other most nearly ap- 

 proaching in form. But as I have declined all 

 method that rather tends 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 

 because 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 he knows, in or- 

 der to direct him in conceiving the figure of such 

 as he does not know. Still, however, he should 



[ This class of animals have two fore-teeth in each jaw ; those in the 

 upper jaw are double, the interior ones being smallest.] 



