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THE COMMON HARE.* (Lepus timidus, Linn.) 



Three distinct species of hare inhabit Great Britain. The 

 present species is the common one of England, and perhaps 

 of some other parts of Europe -, but so little attention appears 

 to have been paid to the comparison of specimens in other 

 countries, that it is not improbable that its geographical dis- 

 tribution is more confined than is generally supposed. The 

 alpine hare (Lepus variabilis, Pall.) inhabits the summits of the 

 mountains in the North of Scotland, but is occasionally found 

 as far south as the mountains of Cumberland. In Ireland 

 neither of these species have yet been discovered, but another 

 species (Lepus Hibernicus), whose specific differences, which 

 consist chiefly in the more equal length of the hind and fore 

 limbs, and the ears being shorter than the head, remained 

 unnoticed until so late a period as the year 1833. 



The ordinary length of the common hare of England is one 

 foot nine inches and three-quarters, or, with the full extent of 

 the tail, two feet one inch 5 and the weight about eight or nine 

 pounds, but occasionally twelve pounds ; and an instance is 



* The Scotch call a hare a mauJcin. 



