314 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



them. Thus Archelaus writes, that any one wishing 

 to know the age of a hare should look at the orifices ^ 

 provided by Nature, as some have certainly more 

 5 than others. There is also the recent fashion, now 

 general, of fattening them — by taking them from 

 the warren, shutting them up in cages, and fatten- 

 ing^ them in confinement. 



Now of these creatures there are roughly three ^ 

 varieties: the first, our Italian hare, which has short 

 front legs and long hind ones, the upper part of the 

 body dark, the stomach white, and the ears long. 

 This hare is said to conceive even when pregnant. 



quelque sorte deux matrices distinctes, siparies^ et qui peuvent 

 agir indSpendamment Tune de V autre ; en sorte que les femelles 

 dans cette espece peuvent concevoir et accoucher en diffirents 

 temps par chacune de ces matrices (Durand de la Malle, loc. 



cit-y 515). 



^ Foramina naturae. This Is explained by Pliny (viii, 55) : 

 A rchelaus auctor est quot sint corporis cavemae ad excrementa 

 leporiy totidem esse annos aetatis. Varius certe numerus reper- 

 itur. Idem, utramque vim singulis inesse, ac sine m,are aeque 

 gignere. 



^ Saginarent Macrobius (iii, 9, end), who quotes Varro, 

 gives this and the fattening of snails as instances to prove 

 that his own age was much less luxurious than Varro's, for 

 In Macroblus's time (a.d. 400) both these practices were un- 

 known. 



Instead of the reading of the Archetype saginarent pleraque^ 

 Macrobius found saginarentur, and Instead of hos, hoc. Kell 

 suggests pleriqucy which I have translated. 



^ THa genera. Xenophon (Cynegetlcus, c. 5) distinguishes 

 two varieties : (i) the big kind the colour of a half ripe olive, 

 having a good deal of white on the forehead, (2) the smaller 

 kind reddish yellow, with very little white about it. 



