CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 7. RODENTIA. 343 



and notwithstanding the additions which modern luxury has made to the furnishings of the table, 

 it still maintains its character. In the opinion of Martial, the epigrammatic poet, the flesh of the 

 hare was superior to that of every other four-footed animal ; and Horace represents the hare's 

 "wing" as being among the most highly prized of Roman luxuries. Moses, however, forbade the 

 flesh of the hare to the Hebrews, and the Koran follows this prohibition. 



In those countries of middle and southern Europe which are but thinly peopled and partially 

 cultivated, the number of hares which are taken in the course of the year is immense, and the 

 skins of them form an extensive branch of commerce, being exported for the hat manufacture, 

 and also used locally as very warm articles of clothing. It is understood that the small kingdom 

 of Bohemia alone furnishes nearly half a million of skins in the course of the year, and that Aus- 

 tria Proper furnishes nearly double that number; while the supply from southern Russia and 

 western Siberia is understood to be still greater. 



Though the hare is considered one of the most harmless and timid of all animals, excepting 

 in so far as it commits depredations upon the vegetable kingdom, it has not escaped being made 

 an object of superstitious dread; neither is it quite exempt from those foolish, and perhaps in- 

 stinctive prejudices which certain individuals of the human race have against certain animals, 

 which cannot, in the nature of things, do them any harm. It is reported of a celebrated French 

 commander, who was an exceedingly brave man, that he always fainted at the sight of a hare. 

 In England, when the belief in witchcraft was general, the hare was regarded as one of the most 

 formidable animals, — the one, in short, into which old women most frequently transformed them- 

 selves, by the instrumentality of the devil, in order to wreak their vengeance on the rest of man- 

 kind. Nor has this prejudice been entirely exploded, for there are still many of the fishing vil- 

 lages where a hare's foot cannot be mentioned without exciting the greatest terror, — where a 

 hare thrown into a boat would prevent that boat from going to sea; and where, if such a catas- 

 trophe were to happen as a hare to run along the beach in front of all the fishermen's huts, it 

 would shut them up as effectually during the day as if each were guarded by a regiment of 

 soldiers. 



The hare in England comes under the head of game, and is protected by the game-laws the 

 same as pheasants and partridges. It is hunted by greyhounds, and this amusement is called 

 coursing, it being, next to the chase of the fox, the greatest field-sport of the English gentry. The 

 greyhound runs by sight; but the hare is also hunted by breeds of dogs called harriers and beagles, 

 which follow by scent, and run the hares down by a prolonged chase. 



The Varying Hare, L. variabilis, is nearly of the size of the preceding, the legs being an inch 

 shorter, the ears shorter, the long fur of a finer staple, and the body thicker and heavier. One 

 of the most remarkable characteristics of this animal, and one in which it agrees with the ermine 

 and the ptarmigan, is that it changes its color with the seasons, excepting that the tips of the ears 

 are black at all times. In summer, the color is grayish-fawn, and in winter it is white. This 

 change takes place in the following manner: about the middle of September, the gray feet begin 

 to be white; this color gradually ascends the legs and thighs, and spreads under the gray in spots, 

 which continue to increase till the end of October; but still the back continues of a gray color, 

 while the eyebrows and ears are nearly white. From this period the change of color advances 

 very rapidly, and by the middle of November the whole fur, with the exception of the tips of the 

 ears, which remain black, is of a shining white. The back becomes white within eight days. 

 During the whole of this remarkable change in the fur, no hair falls from the animal; hence it 

 appears that the hair actually changes its color, and that there is no renewal of it. The fur re- 

 tains its white color until the month of March, or even later, depending on the temperature of the 

 atmosphere, and by the middle of May it has again a gray color.' But the spring change is 

 different from the winter, as the hair is completely shed. 



This species, even during the most intense cold which occurs in those, elevated and northern 

 regions of which it is a native, keeps up the character of the race in the rapidity of its circulation 

 and the high degree of its temperature. Even there it is as warm as one hundred and five de- 

 crees of the common thermometer, which is nearly ten degrees higher than in the human body. 

 True to this activity of its system, the Variable hare never shows the least disposition to hybernate, 



