148 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



round : he says that in mild winters young Hares have been found in January, and that he has 

 known breeding continue till the middle of November. When captured young, the Hare may be 

 easily tamed, and become an amusing pet, as, indeed, will be familiar to almost every one, through 

 Cowper's account of his Hares. Formerly the Hare used to be trained by jugglers to perform various 

 tricks, one of which was the beating of a tambourine with its fore-feet, with which the animal will 

 of its own accord drum upon the back of an offending companion. A relic of this practice is to be 

 recognised in a common toy, which shows a small Hare sitting and beating a tambourine, its fore 

 limbs being set in motion by the turning of the wheels of its stand. 



The Common Hare is found spread over the greater part of Europe, from the south of Sweden 

 and northern Russia to the Mediterranean and the Caucasus. It does not occur in Ireland. It 

 varies somewhat in colour in different localities, and although it does not become white in winter, 

 the northern forms show a tendency in that direction, and the others acquire a greyish tint at the 

 approach of the cold weather. 



THE RABBIT, or CONY (Lepus cuniculus), differs from the Hare in various characters ; its colour 

 is a tawny brownish-grey, the disproportion between the fore and hind limbs is not so great, and the 

 ears are shorter, not exceeding the head in length. Although the Wild Rabbit is so plentiful in 

 England as to become a pest to the farmers in many places, it is supposed not to be a native of north- 

 western and central Europe, but to have been naturalised in Britain, its original home being in 

 the countries bordering the Mediterranean. It is, and always was, very abundant in Spain, the name 

 of which country (Hispania) has been supposed to mean the "country of Conies," from the Phoenician 

 and Hebrew word Scliaplian, the name of the Hyrax or Cony of the Bible. Even in the present 



COMMON HAKE. 



