350 



VERTEBRATA. 





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THE CALLING HARE. 



hoary; on the sides the fur is yellowish ; length about six inches; weight from three and a quar- 

 ter to four and a half ounces; in winter scarcely two and a half ounces. 



The Calling Hares delight in the most sunny valleys and hills, where the herbage is plentiful 

 and delicate. They choose these localities when in the vicinity of a wood, which will afford them 

 a ready refuge in case of danger or alarm. Their burrows are usually formed under bushes or 

 tangled vegetation of some sort or other. During the day they are generally concealed in these 

 subterranean retreats ; but they come abroad during the night, at which time they arc understood 

 se aa well as during the day. In the morning and the evening, and at intervals during the 

 night, they call to each other with a cry which has been compared to that of the quail, and 

 which, notwithstanding the small size of the animal, may be heard at the distance of a mile. It 

 is on this account that the epithet "Tailing" has been added to their name. The uttering of this 

 cry seems to be a matter of considerable exertion to them; for it is attended with a motion of the 

 neck and head very similar to that of the dog when he barks. "When the weather is fine they 

 are in general silent during the day, but when it lowers, or is tempestuous, they become noisy, 

 and are, like many other animals, a sort of natural indicators of the weather. Both the male 

 female utter this cry, though the latter is silent for some time after giving birth to her young. 



In the long winters of the country which they inhabit, they form galleries under the snow, by 

 which they reach those shrubs on the bark of which they feed, without at all appearing on the 

 Burface. In summer they eat grass and succulent leaves; but they are often reduced to greai 

 tremities in the heighl of summer, when the moisture is dried up and the plants withered 6 

 the ground. En Buch cases they arc sometimes compelled to feed on the droppings of the largci 

 herbaceous mammalia; and they are equally pinched for water, of which they drink freely wl 

 it i- to be had. 



These are very cleanly as well as very delicate little creatures, and keep their burrows 

 neat They are prolific, the females producing about six on the average. The time of gestation 

 has not been ascertained; but, from the analogy of the whole race, it is presumed to bei 

 short The young are produced with the eyes closed, and without any fur on their bodies; but, 

 the fur begins to appear aboul the eighth day, and the growth is very rapid. In their di"f 

 tions, these little creatine-, are the gentlesl of all imaginable animals, and though, when in astatc 

 of nature, they are very timid, they arc susceptible to kind usage, and wheli tenderly treated be- 

 come very tame. 



