Ill] OF WARRENS 315 



In Transalpine Gaul and Macedonia they are very 



6 large, in Spain and Italy of but moderate size. There 

 is a second variety which is found in Gaul near the 

 Alps' which differs from the former only in being 

 white all over. These do not often reach Rome. A 

 third variety is found in Spain, which resembles in 

 some measure our Italian hare, but it stands low. 

 This is called a cuniculus* (coney, rabbit). L. Aelius 

 thought that the hare {lepus) derived its name from 

 its swiftness, as it was light-footed {levipes), I, how- 

 ever, believe that it comes from the ancient Greek 

 word, for the Aeolians^ used to call a hare h£7ropig. 

 Rabbits {cuniculi) are so called because they make 

 burrows {cuniculi) underground in the fields, to hide 



7 themselves in. One should have, if it is possible, 



^ Ad Alpis. Cf. Pliny (viil, 55). " There are several varieties 

 of hares. On the Alps they are white and are thought to feed 

 on the snow in the winter months — they certainly turn reddish 

 cllow as the snow melts." 



■' Cuniculus. Pliny {Joe. cit.) speaks of their enormous 

 fecundity. They over-ran Majorca and Minorca to such an 

 extent that the inhabitants asked Augustus for military aid 

 against them. It is interesting to find from the same chapter 

 that rabbits were hunted with the help of tame ferrets {viverrae) 

 just as now. 



' Aeolis. Cf. iii, i, 6: Et in Graecia Aeolis Boeoti (note). 

 For \iiropiv compare Gellius's (i, 18) quotation from Varro's 

 Rcrum Divinarum : Non enim leporem dicimus ut ait Aelius 

 quod est levipes sed quod est vocabulum anticum graecum. And 

 Varro (L. L., v, 20, beginning): Lepus quod Siculis {Siculil) 

 quidam Graeci dicunt XiTrnpiv, a Roma quod orti Siculi hinc 

 illuc tulere et hie reliquerunt id nomen. Volpes ut Aelius dicebat 

 quod volai pedibus. 



