472 MAMMALIA. 



crop of the district j hut, thanks to Professor Loeffler, the voles 

 were exterminated hy inoculation on a large scale with his 

 bacilli typhi murians. 



Family Leporid^ (Rabbits and Hares). 



These rodents can be told by their possessing two small 



incisors in the upper jaw (fig. 222), just behind the two large 



frontal ones, so that the dental formula runs thus : — 



,2—2 0—0 3—3 3—3 „ 



J ; c ; pm ; m = 28. 



1—1' 0—0'-^ 2—2' 3—3 



The upper lip is cleft and the back teeth have folds of enamel. 



The fore-legs are much shorter than the hind-limbs, and have 



only four toes, while the tail is short and erect. 



The Rabbit (Lepus caniculus) breeds with great rapidity; 

 the young are blind and hairless at birth. From five to eight 

 families are produced in the year, and often there are six young 

 at a time. They commence to breed when only six months old. 

 The burrows, which are in large companies (warrens), can be 

 formed in any soil not too stiff. The rabbit will flourish every- ; 

 where in temperate and sub-tropical regions, and is often, as we 

 see in Australia, a terrible scourge. Eecently they have in- 

 creased to an alarming extent in Scotland. This, again, has 

 been brought about by the mad slaughter of weasels, stoats, and 

 rapacious birds. 



The Hare (L. timid.us), on the other hand, litters in the 

 open, the young being born in a more advanced stage than in 

 the rabbit, and with open eyes. They do not breed as rapidly 

 as the rabbit, seldom more than four times a- year, producing 

 two to four young (leverets). The common hare is found all 

 over Europe except Sweden and Norway. Hares are often 

 destructive to crops, especially cabbage, carrots, turnips, and 

 rape. They will eat almost any green stuff. It is chiefly in 

 gardens that they do harm, but they can -easily, like rabbits, be 

 kept out by wire. 



