HARE KIND. 129 



hare, though these abound in their neighbour- 

 hood. They do not run fast; and are apt to 

 take shelter in clefts of rocks. They are easily 

 tamed, and are full of frolic. This species 

 changes its colour in September; resumes its 

 grey coat in April ; and in the extreme cold of 

 Greenland only is always white. They collect 

 together, and are seen in troops of five or six 

 hundred, migrating in spring, and returning in 

 autumn. They are compelled to this by the want 

 of subsistence ; quitting in the winter the lofty 

 hills, and seeking the plains and wooded parts, 

 where vegetables abound ; and in spring they 

 again seek the mountainous quarters. 



The American Hare, or hedge-coney, has the 

 ears tipt with grey ; the upper part of the tail 

 is black, the lower white ; the neck and body 

 are mixed with cinereous, rust-colour, and black ; 

 the legs are of a pale ferruginous colour ; and the 

 belly is white : the fore-legs are shorter, and the 

 hind-legs longer, in proportion, than those of the 

 common hare. In length it is eighteen inches ; 

 and weighs from three to four and a half pounds. 

 This species inhabits all parts of North America. 

 In New Jersey, and the colonies south of that 

 province, it retains its colour the whole year. In 

 New England, Canada, and about Hudson's Bay, 

 at the approach of winter, it changes its short 

 summer's fur for one very long, silky, and silvery, 

 even to the roots of the hair ; the edges of the 

 ears only preserving their colour. 



The Baikal Hare has a tail longer than that 

 of a rabbit ; and the ears are longer in the male 



VOL. III. I 



