THE COMMON OR BROWN HARE 289 



to vouch for the accuracy of the particulars, since, when 

 a boy, he was in the habit of going round to find where 

 the does had put the leverets. There is no reason to doubt 

 Dovaston's observations, which have, indeed, been frequently 

 confirmed both as to the number of young, and in respect 

 to the doe carrying her young like a cat.^ But Mr Forrest 

 goes too far when he assumes that the number of leverets 

 is always, or even most frequently, five. In fact, a no less 

 weighty authority than Dovaston, the late J. C. Mansel- 

 Pleydell,^ laid it down that, although his keeper once found five 

 together, three is the most usual number with vigorous mothers, 

 but with old does only two, and with young mothers one ; and 

 these smaller numbers were verified by dissection. There can 

 be little doubt that in the case of such prolific and flexible 

 animals as the rodents, the number of litters and of the young 

 in each must undergo considerable variation * in accordance with 

 the prevailing conditions of food, weather, and the health and 

 age of the animals themselves * ; Brehm states that the 

 number of young in the first litter is one or two ; in the second 

 it may reach three or four ; in the third, three ; and in the 

 fourth, one or two. It is probable that the number of leverets 

 in a litter decreases proportionately with the number of litters 

 produced by the dam in the year. The largest litters might, 

 therefore, be expected in the north, where the climate reduces 

 the length of the breeding season. This may explain 

 why the species of hares inhabiting the barren northern 

 districts of North America and Greenland commonly give birth 

 to eight, nine, or ten young at a time.^ But in these northern 

 hares themammse are more numerous than in the Brown Hare, 

 so that they would have less difficulty in rearing a large family. 

 This species has now and then been kept as a pet, but must 

 be taken young to become absolutely trustful. If kindly 

 treated, it may then become so affectionate and confiding as to 



' Editor oi Field, 7th November 1891, 706 ; and ist December 1906, 948. 



^ Zoologist, 1888, 259. 



^ The variability is shown by Cocks's observation (MS.), that of seven pregnant 

 females examined at Poynetts, near Henley-on-Thames, six contained a single 

 embryo and the seventh five. 



* See on this point Preble's account of the American Varying Hare (0^. «V.). 



5 See above, pp. 160 and 170. 



