CRESTED LARK. 



CHAPTER IV 



The Open Country 



Hare. 



The fields, meadows, and heaths are far less rich in animal life than are the 

 woodlands ; and the few mammals inhabiting such localities belong exclusively 

 to the rodent and the insect-eating groups. Among the former, we 

 have first of all the hare (Lepus europceus), which is sometimes 

 met with in the forest, and is therefore not exclusively an animal of the field. 

 Unlike the rabbit and mountain-hare, its ears are longer than the head, and, 

 if bent forwards, project beyond the nose. Several local varieties of hares are 

 distinguishable by their colour, the length and thickness of their fur, and the 

 relative length of their ears. The hare of southern Europe has, for instance, a 

 short, loose coat, slender, thinly haired ears, and is of a dark rusty colour ; while 

 that of central Europe has a close, long coat, long and thickly haired ears, a 

 distinct whitish hue on the sides of its body and the thighs, and in winter 

 a grey back and greyish white sides and thighs. There are some slight differences 

 between the hares in the different parts of Europe, and a distinction is sometimes 

 made between those of the uplands and those of the plains. In the Hartz Mountains 

 the hares have thicker hair and more white in their coats than those which live 

 in the lowlands ; but the difference between them is slight, whereas the German 

 hare differs greatly from that of northern Russia. The British hare has now 

 been distinguished as L. ewrojKeiis occidenialis, while the Spanish and Corsican hares 



