270 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNN0 1772". 



opportunity of selecting a proper place for their concealment. The ground, 

 however, in a warren, is eaten so very bare by rabbits, that it is impossible for 

 them to hide themselves if they make a form in any part of it, and they there- 

 fore very judiciously choose to burrow under ground. 



Another reason, perhaps, for the rabbit's burrowing arises from the animal's 

 being not only born, but continuing the first six weeks of its life, under ground; 

 they therefore only practise what they have seen and learned in their earliest 

 infancy, as birds from the same circumstance always build their nest in the same 

 form, and with the same materials. Mr. B. therefore cannot allow entirely of the 

 distinction arising from the superior sagacity of the rabbit, because it burrows; and 

 Mons. de BufFon himself informs us, that tame rabbits turned into a warren do 

 not burrow for many generations. 



Having thus endeavoured to show that no proper criteria have hitherto been 

 fixed on to distinguish the rabbit from the hare, Mr. B. suggests the two follow- 

 ing, which he flatters himself, will be found less liable to the same exceptions. 

 If the hind legs of a European hare are measured from the uppermost joint to 

 the toe, the number of inches will turn out to be just half of the length of the 

 back, from the rump to the mouth; the tail not being included. The hind legs 

 of the rabbit being measured in the same manner, and compared with the back, 

 are not much more than one-third; from which it seems not unfair to consider 

 any animal of the hare genus, whose legs thus measured are less than the half of the 

 distance from the rump to the mouth, as a rabbit; and on the contrary when they 

 are either one half, or more, as a hare. If the fore and hind legs of a rabbit 

 and hare be also respectively compared, it will be found that the fore legs of the 

 former are proportionally shorter than those of a hare. 



By both these criteria the quadruped from Hudson's Bay, which gave occasion 

 to this paper, must rather be considered as a hare, than a rabbit, as it is called in 

 that part of the world, according to the admeasurements subjoined, which 

 include the respective proportions also of the Alpine hare.* 



Fore Leg. Hind Leg. Back and Head. 



rj Inches. Inches. Inches. 



Rabbit 4J fij IbJ 



Hare 7i U 22 



SS:^?''} «*::::::::;;;:::><'« •» 



^ 



6| lOI 22 



... TT J From the up- From the up- 



° \ permost joint permost joint 



' to the toe. to the toe. 



From the proportion of these parts, in the Hudson's Bay quadruped, according 



* This species of hare is found in the highlands of Scotland, whence Mr. B. received a specimen^ 

 which he presented to the Museum of the Royal Society. — Orig, 



