1 6 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE 



reproduces young two or three times in a season, 

 generally dropping a single young one, but often two, 

 and sometimes three. Young doe hares which 

 enter the world in March seem to reproduce young 

 in the following July or August. Those which 

 are born in late autumn give birth to young ones 

 only in the following year ; at least, such is my 

 belief, but it is difificult to lay down any hard-and-fast 

 rules as to the gestation of wild animals. The subject 

 is exceedingly obscure and has not been fully venti- 

 lated. Even if wild animals reproduce their own kind 

 in confinement (which they often persistently fail to 

 do), it would still be doubtful if the gestation of the 

 females kept under artificial conditions could be relied 

 upon to correspond in all particulars with the similar 

 period passed in a state of absolute freedom. Bell 

 says that in mild winters young hares have been found 

 in January. A few leverets are undoubtedly dropped 

 in February, especially after those open winters which 

 encourage the old ones to couple early. Some people 

 consider it unusual to find leverets in March. Mr. 

 Algernon E. Perkins recorded in the Field a nest of five 

 young leverets which his keeper found in Norfolk on 

 April 25. Mr. Richard Rice wrote from Berkshire, to 

 say that he saw a dead leveret in a sheep pen on 

 March 8. It had been killed by cold weather ; snow 



