ORDER RODENTIA. 219 



family without necessity, but is enlarged as the number 

 of the family increases, by the addition of more galleries or 

 apartments. This succession of patrimony, this right of 

 property among these animals, has been long observed, nor 

 have the modern investigations in zoology disproved its 

 existence. La Fontaine thus takes notice of it — 



Jean Lapin allegua la eoutume et l'usage. 

 Ce sont leur lois, dit-il, qui m'ont de ce log-is 

 Rendu maitre et seigneur, et qui, de pere en fils, 

 IT ait de Pierre a. Simon, puis a moi, Jean, transmis. 



In the absence of facts to establish the contrary, Buffon 

 very naturally conjectured that the Variable Hare did not 

 differ specifically from the common species ; the mere fact 

 of the change of colour with the season being by no means 

 uncommon in several species. Conjecture, however, must 

 give way to the result of observation and experience, which 

 have now established the distinctness of this species. 



The Variable Hare is about a fourth larger than the 

 Common Hare, but the head, relatively with the body, is 

 not so large, and the ears are considerably shorter ; the 

 eyes also are situate nearer to the nostrils ; the legs, also, 

 compared with the body, are not so long, and the tail is 

 shorter, having less vertebrae. The summer dress is brown, 

 varied with whitish and reddish-gray ; but in winter it is 

 all over of the purest white, with the exception only of a 

 slight border of black round the ears, and a yellowish tinge 

 on the soles of the feet. The iris of the eye is at all times 

 of a yellow brown, and the tail is always white, but in win- 

 ter it becomes slightly tufted with a woolly kind of hair. 



We have already had occasion to notice, that few opera- 

 tions of nature have hitherto more completely escaped de- 

 tection than this periodical mutation of colour in animals. 

 The manner and the object are alike obscure, and the mere 

 fact that it occurs principally, perhaps entirely, in the na- 



