BOOK VIII. Lxxxi. 217-Lxxxn. 220 



Spain called rabbits also belong to the genus hare; 

 their fertihty is beyond counting, and they bring 

 famine to the Balearic Islands by ravaging the crops. 

 Their young cut out from the mother before birth or 

 taken from the teat are considered a very great 

 dehcacy, served without being gutted ; the name for 

 them is laurex. It is an estabhshed fact that the 

 peoples of the Balearics petitioned the late lamented 

 Augustus for mihtary assistance against the spread 

 of these animals. The ferret is extremely popular 

 for rabbit-hunting ; they throw ferrets into the 

 bun-ows with a number of exits that the rabbits 

 tunnel in the ground (this is the derivation of their 

 name ' cony ' ") and so catch the rabbits when they 

 are driven out to the surface. Archelaus states that 

 a hare is as many years old as it has folds in the bowel : 

 these are certainly found to vary in number. The 

 same authority says that the hare is a hermaphrodite 

 and reproduces equally well without a male. Nature 

 has shown her benevolence in making harmless and 

 edible breeds of animals proHfic. The hare which is 

 born to be all creatures' prey is the only animal 

 beside the shaggy-footed rabbit that practises super- 

 fetation, rearing one leveret while at the same time 

 carrying in the womb another clothed with hair and 

 another bald and another still an embryo. Also the 

 experiment has been made of using the fur of the 

 hare for making clothes, although it is not so soft to 

 the touch as it is when on the animaFs skin, and the 

 garments soon come to pieces because of the short- 

 ness of the hair.* 



LXXXII. Hares rarely grow tame, although they Haif- 

 cannot properly be termed wild ammals — for in s^l,^ 

 fact there are a good many creatures that are Themouie 



^53 



