THZ HABE. 



haps his mother — came down to the shore to see him off; that 

 he was a bold hare is clear by his taking to the water without 

 a moment's hesitation, although a mile of dreary ocean was 

 before him ; and that he was an afifeotionate hare is evidenced 

 by the purpose that led him to undertake the perilous voyage. 

 It is really quite nice to find that the noble fellow's love was 

 appreciated, and that his sweetheart came down to the beach 

 to receive him. Did he press his hare-hp to hers, and did 

 their happy tears mingle on the strand ? The narrator saith 

 not ; but that such was the case there is little doubt, and that 

 it was from these tokens that Mr. TarreU's informant gathered 

 the inference that they were sweethearts long attached, and 

 had " met many times before." 



Animals of the hare species are found throughout Europe 

 and America, and indeed in other parts of the world ; but none 

 of them exactly resemble that with which we are famiUar. The 

 hare found in Ireland, for example, was long thought to be 

 merely a variety of the EngUsh animal ; but the indefatigable 

 Mr. BeU detects the following differences. The Irish hare is 

 somewhat larger ; the head is somewhat shorter ; the ears are 

 even shorter than the head, while those of the English hare 

 are folly an inch longer ; the hmbs are proportionally rather 

 shorter, and the hinder limbs do not much exceed the fore-legs 

 in length. The for is also remarkably different : it is com- 

 posed exclusively of the uniform soft and shorter hair which in 

 the English species is mixed with the black-tipped long hairs 

 that give the peculiar mottled appearance of that animal ; it 

 is, therefore, of a tmiform brownish colour on the back and 

 sides. The ears are reddish grey, blackish at the tip, with a 

 dark line near the_ outer margin. The tail is nearly of the 

 same relative length as in the common species. 



Distributed through Norway, Sweden, Eussia, and Kams- 

 ehatka is an animal called the Varying hare. The fur, which 

 is fall and soft, is in summer grey intermixed with silky hair 

 of a yellowish brown ; the ears are tipped with black, and the 

 under parts are light grey. The tail is white beneath and grey 

 above. As the winter approaches, the fur gradually becomes 

 white, except that on the Hps and the tips of the ears, which 

 remains black. In the " Edinburgh Philosophical Journal," 

 vol. ii., is an interesting account of the process as it occurs in 

 Scotland, from which it would seem that the winter change of 

 colour takes place without any removal of the hair. " Abou1> 

 the middle of September," says the writer in the " Journal," 

 3i 



