gg NORTHERN HARE. 



this Hare retires to its form at early dawn, or shelters itself under the 

 thick foliage of fallen tree tops, particularly those of the pine and 

 hemlock. It occasionally retires to the same cover for a number of 

 nights in succession, but this habit is by no means conunon ; and the 

 sportsman who expects on some succeeding day to find this animal in 

 the place from which it was once started, is likely to be disappointed; 

 although we are not aware, that any other of oiu- species of hare are so 

 attached to particular and beaten paths through the woods, as the one 

 now under consideration. It nightly pursues these paths, not only during 

 the deep snows of ^'sinter, but for a period of several years, if not killed 

 or taken, wandering through them even during summer. We have seen 

 a dozen caught at one spot, in snares composed of horse-hair or brass 

 wire, in the course of a winter, and when the snow had disappeared, 

 and the spring was advanced, others were still captured in the same 

 way, and in the same paths. 



The period of gestation in this species is believed to be, (al- 

 though we cannot speak with positive certainty,) about six weeks. 

 Two females which we domesticated, and kept in a warren, produced 

 young, one on the tenth, and the other on the fifteenth, of May ; one had 

 four, and the other six leverets, which were deposited on a nest of straw, 

 the inside of which was lined with a considerable quantityof hair plucked 

 from their bodies. They succeeded in rearing all their young but 

 one, which was killed by the male of a common European rabbit. 

 They were not again gravid during that season. Ill health, and more 

 important studies, required us to be absent for six months, and when 

 we returned, all our pets had escaped to the woods, therefore we could 

 not satisfactorily finish the observations on their habits in confinement, 

 which had interested and amused us in many a leisure hour. 



We, however, think it probable that the females in their wild state, may 

 produce young, twice during the season. Those referred to above, were 

 much harassed by other species which were confined in the same war- 

 ren, and might therefore have been less prolific than if they had enjoyed 

 their liberty undisturbed, amid the recesses of their native woods. We 

 have frequently observed the young of the Northern Hare in May, and 

 again in July. These last must have been either from a second litter, or 

 the produce of a young female of the previous year. The young, at birth 

 were able to see. They w^ere covered with short hair ; and appeared 

 somewhat darker in colour than the adults, at that season. They left their 

 nest in ten or twelve days, and from that time seemed to provide for 

 themselves, and to derive little sustenance or protection from their mo- 

 thers. The old males at this period seemed to be animated with renewed 



