Class I. HARE. 



sues and discovers the female, by the sagacity of 

 its nose. The female goes with young one 

 month, brings usually two young at a time, 

 sometimes three, and very rarely four. Sir 

 Thomas Brown, in his treatise on vulgar errors,* 

 asserts the doctrine of superfetation ; i. e. a 

 conception upon conception, or an improve- 

 ment on the first fruit before the second is ex- 

 cluded, and he brings this animal as an in- 

 stance; asserting, from his own observation, 

 that after the first cast there remain successive 

 conceptions, and other younglings very imma- 

 ture, and far from the term of their exclusion ; 

 but as the hare breeds very frequently in the 

 year, there is no necessity of having recourse to 

 this accident! to account for their numbers. 

 The antients were acquainted with this circum- 

 stance. Horace alludes to it in the fourth satire 

 of the second book. 



Fcecundi leporis sapiens sectabltar armos, 



says the bon vivant^ " every man of taste will 

 " prefer the wing of the fruitful hare." Pliny 

 as a philosopher is moi'c explicit, and assigning 

 a moral reason for the great encrease of this ani- 



* P 118. 



f For a further account of this doctrine, we refer the curious 

 reader toM. de Buffons works, vol. vi. p. 252, 279, ^'c 



127 



