ORDER RODENTIA. 213 



up in the race before our eyes, and however widely the 

 exotic race may vary from their ancestors, we dare not to 

 affirm that there is any specific difference ; but when the 

 allocation of an animal is involved in the general obscurity 

 of past unrecorded events, and the consequences only are 

 known to us by inspection for the first time, it is easy to 

 anticipate a great probability, at least of the descendants 

 from the same root being treated as distinct. Hence, the 

 great caution necessary in editing a species as new. 



These observations, however, have no other than a gene- 

 ral application when applied to the genus before us, re- 

 sulting from the great similarity of the several species 

 which compose it, and which, at the same time, we may 

 observe, are supported by the sanction of the greatest names 

 in zoology. 



Mindful of the wide field before us, of the necessity for 

 abridgment, and of the simple elementary pretensions of 

 these essays, we are unwilling to dilate on the external 

 physicalities, at least, of a species so well known as the 

 Common Hare ; and though the teeth would well deserve a 

 particular description, every one may acquaint himself with 

 them by the much more effectual mode of observation. 

 The palms of the feet, being covered with hair, is a re- 

 markable character for its singularity in this species. The 

 eyes have no accessary organ, and the pupil is elongated 

 horizontally. The nostrils are circular, and almost hidden 

 in a fold, by which means they are capable of being closed. 

 The upper lip is cleft. The tongue is thick and soft. Their 

 very long ears, like the nostrils, are capable also of being 

 closed; it appears, therefore, that the excessive develop- 

 ment of these organs is not without a corresponding per- 

 fection in the senses to which they belong, a perfection 

 which may, at times, when the animal is in a state of re- 

 pose and safety, not only be unnecessary but irksome to it 

 had not its Creator provided against this evil, by enabling 



