THE RABBIT. 325 



Performance of a hare on a public thotitre. 



drawn, which were too much distended wiih 

 inilk ; until, from habit, she became as much de- 

 lighted with this foundling as if it had been her 

 real offspring." 



Dr. Darwin, in his Zoonomia, relates, that a 

 clergyman at Elford, near Litchfield, having 

 taken out the young ones, which were alive, 

 from a hare he had shot, gave them to a cat 

 which had just lost her kittens. The animal 

 immediately carried them away, suckled them, 

 and brought them up, as their mother. 



As a proof of the hare's docility, it may be ob- 

 served, that some years ago, one of these little 

 quadrupeds was exhibited at Sadler's Wells, 

 'beating with its fore-feet upon a drum, which a, 

 person carried round the stage. How so timid 

 an animal could be brought to face a shouting 

 audience, and a glare of light, so unnatural to it, 

 seems very mysterious; but the fact is indis- 

 putable. 



The fur of the hare is of great use in making 

 hats ; for which purpose several thousand skins 

 are annually imported from Russia. 



THE RABBIT. 



THIS animal, though nearly allied to the pre- 

 ceding one in form and disposition, is a distinct 

 species; and when shut up with the hare, the 



