CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 339 



for the comminution of vegetable substances, and although many of these animals are omnivor- 

 ous, there is no doubt that vegetable matters constitute the principal part of their nourishment. 



The skull is small, and the jaws, especially the lower one, large and strong. To give full action 

 to the gnawing incisors, the lower jaw is articulated to the skull by an elongated condyle, which 

 allows it to move freely backward and forward. The head is more or less rounded, with the 

 snout pointed, and usually furnished with long moustaches. The opening of the mouth is small, 

 but the cheeks often form large pouches, in which the animals can convey food to the hoards 

 which they lay up in their dwelling-places. The brain is small, and exhibits scarcely any convo- 

 lutions, and the cerebellum is almost entirely exposed. The legs are generally short, and adapted 

 either for walking or climbing; the feet are furnished with four or five free toes, armed with nail- 

 like claws; but the thumb is never opposable. The eyes and external ears are usually of mod- 

 erate size, but the latter sometimes attain a great length. The skin is generally covered with soft 

 hair, but in some cases with bristles and spines. The tail varies greatly in its development, and 

 is sometimes naked or scaly, and sometimes covered with hair. 



The rodents are distributed in all parts of the world, even New Holland possessing apparently 

 indigenous species. Very few are domesticated; but the flesh of some species is eaten, while the 

 skins of others are sought after as furs. Notwithstanding their small size, their great numbers, 

 their habit of storing up large quantities of provisions, and their extraordinary propensity for 

 gnawing, cause them to commit great devastations in many places. 



THE LEPORLD^E. 



The immense number of species included in the order of rodentia has necessitated the forma- 

 tion of numerous families. The first is that of the Leporidce, or Hares, including the Rabbits, 

 and the Lagomys, or Calling-hares, and which are at once distinguished from all the other rodents 

 by the possession of a small additional incisor behind each of the two large chisel-like incisor teeth 

 in the upper jaw. They also present several other remarkable characteristics, among which we 

 may notice that the orbits communicate with each other through an aperture in the septum, a 

 structure which is characteristic of the class of birds. The maxillary bones are pierced with numer- 

 ous sieve-like holes, a character which is otherwise peculiar to the ruminants. The molar teeth 

 have a transverse ridge of enamel, so that they appear to be composed of two halves; they are 

 usually six in the upper and five in the lower jaw, but in some species the upper jaw has only five 

 molar teeth. The leporidae are all strictly herbivorous animals. 



Genus HARE: Lepus. — Of this there are numerous species. The Common Hare of Europe, 

 L. timidus, has the inside of the mouth hairy; the tongue and nose are very thick; the upper lip 

 is cleft to the nostrils, which seem to unite, and to form a single opening; the eyes, which are 

 very prominent, are furnished with a nictitating membrane; the feet are covered beneath, as well 

 as above, with fur; the heart is proportionably large, and the caecum about six times as large as 

 the stomach. Under the Mosaic dispensation, when various animals were described as clean or 

 unclean, according to the Levitical ritual, the hare is described as "chewing the cud," that is, 

 as being a ruminant animal. That the hare is not a true ruminant, furnished with the com- 

 pound stomachs of that class of animals, is certain; but still it says not a little for the truth of the 

 Bible's natural history, that the hare is still a partial ruminant, and that, while she sits on her 

 form, she can occasionally bring up a portion of her food, and give it a second mastication. 



Hares of this species are common in most parts of Europe, though they vary considerably in 

 size in different places. Generally speaking, they are smaller in hot countries than in cold : and 

 we might expect this, because the general investiture of the whole body, feet and all, with fur, 

 naturally points out the hare as more an animal of cold, or, at least, temperate countries, than of 

 warm ones. It has been observed, however, that in places not very different from each other, 

 ither in climate or in situation, there are great differences of appearance in the common hare. 

 We shall afterward have occasion to advert to the Irish hare, which recent observation has 

 -hown to differ from the hare of Britain, near as the islands are to each other; but we may men- 

 tion, that a very small breed exists in the island of Islay, on the west coast of Argyleshire, and a 



