26o Field Museum or Natural History — Zoology, Vol. XL 



manent dentition, I. ^' Pm. ^^' M. ^^= 28. 

 i-i 2-2 3-3 



While the names. Hares and Rabbits, are often indiscriminately 

 applied to members of the family, the first is properly restricted to 

 those which do not use burrows in the ground and the young of which 

 are bom covered with hair and with their eyes open. Rabbits, on the 

 contrary, use burrows and holes in the earth* and the young are born 

 naked, with their eyes closed. Hares and Rabbits are very prolific. 

 In many cases the young animals begin to breed when about six months 

 old. The young number from 4 to 6 and it is claimed that two or more 

 litters are born in a season. 



In ancient times the Hare was thought to be of great therapeutic 

 value, and Avicenna (1608), Arnoldus, Topsell and others recommend 

 the use of various parts of its body as a cure for a long list of human 

 ailments ranging from tuberculosis to alopecia. Regarding the treat 

 ment of the latter, Topsell says: ''The powder of the wooll of a Hare 

 burned, mingled with the oyle of Mirtles, the gal of a Bull, and Allum 

 warmed at the fire and annoint it uppon the heade, fasteneth the haire 

 from falling off. . . . The head of a Hare burned and mingled with fat 

 of Beares and vinegar, causeth haire to come where it is fallen off, and 

 Gallen saith that some have used the whole body of a Hare so burned 

 and mingled, for the foresaid cure, being layed in manner of a 

 plaister." (Historic Foure Footed Beastes, Lond., 1607, p. 274.) 



The Hare (and Rabbitf) has always played an important part 

 in mythology and folklore. J Even at the present day the animal is 

 popularly associated with paschal eggs as symbolic of the festival of 

 Easter; and there is a wide spread superstition, especially among 

 negroes, that the left hind foot of a Rabbit taken under certain con- 

 ditions is of great value as a talisman. § 



* The European Rabbit digs burrows, as do their domestic descendents in this 

 country, but with rare exceptions indigenous North American species do not. They 

 use holes, however, made by other animals and often enlarge them. 



t Hares and Rabbits are apparently considered identical in Zoological Mythol- 

 ogy. 



% See Gubernatis, Zool. Mythol., London, 1872; also Massey, The Natural Gen- 

 esis, London, 1883. 



§ There is a curious superstition among negroes in many parts of the United 

 States regarding the efficacy of the "left hind foot of a graveyard rabbit killed in the 

 dark of the moon" in bringing good fortune to its possessor. 



