286 LEPORIDiE— LEPUS 



of forty-two days mentioned by some writers is more nearly 

 correct.^ 



The young are born covered with hair, with the eyes open, 

 and are capable of running ^ soon, if not immediately after birth. 

 No special nursery is prepared, nor does the mother pluck down 

 from her underside, as do the Common Rabbit and the Snowshoe 

 Rabbit ^ of North America. When newly born the whole litter 

 may be found huddled together, often with the mother. But this 

 is only for a very short time ; soon each squats in a miniature 

 form by itself. At night they are ministered to by their dam, but 

 whether she takes the active part in their dispersal, described 

 below by Mr W. D. Dovaston, or whether they scatter naturally 

 and of their own initiative, is still a debatable question. 

 Probably, also, once the shelter of darkness has fallen over them 

 they do not wait for their mother to visit them ; at all events, 

 young leverets, if taken to a house, are very active at night. 



Superfoetation must be rare, as it is difficult to obtain 

 satisfactory evidence of it ; and in some cases the facts may 

 be explained as indicating only delayed development. A doe 

 described* by Dr Cuthbert Johnson contained two lots of 

 young ; a single one with hair and open eyes, and three others 

 bald, pink, and about the size of full-grown mice. Captain 

 Mayne Reid writes ^ of another doe suckling two sets each of 

 two young, but of different age, at the same time ; but as the 

 incident was not observed by himself, confirmation of the 

 existence of such a practice would be desirable. Knowledge 

 on these points is very meagre ; but, if the period of gestation 

 is forty-two days, if the young depend on their mother for 

 three weeks, and if the doe, like the rabbit, pairs again shortly 

 after parturition,® then one litter should be off the dam's hands 

 sometime before the birth of the next. If the period of gesta- 



1 Woodruffe-Peacock {op. cit., 6) gives it as thirty to forty-two days ; and 

 T. Speedy, Field, 13th September 1902, 493, as forty-two. 



2 The mature foetus measures 155 to 200 mm. to end of hind legs (Cocks, MS.). 

 ^ Lepus americanus ; see Thompson Seton, i., 631. 



* See above, p. 168 ; Field, 5th May 1883, 605 ; another instance is given by 

 Speedy, loc. cit. supra. 



* The Naturalist in Siluria, 1889, 149-150. 



" This is the old, and probably correct, belief, dating at least from Aristotle :— 

 "The female . . . after bearing submits immediately to the male" {Historia 

 Animalium, ed. Thompson, vi., 33, 580% 3). 



