88 TEXT-BOOK OF ZOOLOGY 



corn or turnip field, or sometimes in a shallow depression in the ground, 

 the " form," which it digs out with its strong claws. When Night spreads 

 her protecting mantle, it goes forth in search of its food. 



2. Cabbages and turnips form its favourite food, but it does not 

 despise any other of the fruits of the field. When "winter, however, 

 has covered the fields with snow, it has frequently to put up with 

 " short rations." As long as it can scrape away the snow and get 

 at the young corn or the clover, it may manage to get through fairly 

 comfortably. If, however, the snow accumulates or freezes, it has to 

 endure the straits of hunger, and is then often driven into the neighbour- 

 hood of human dwellings. Under these circumstances it is compelled to 

 live on the dry bark of trees, which it detaches with its large incisors 

 (gnawing of fruit-trees). 



3. The teeth in plan and structure resemble those of the squirrel. 

 The only important difference consists in the presence of two small 

 additional lateral incisors behind the median incisors of the upper jaw. 

 In closing the mouth these teeth meet the lower incisors, and thus 

 prevent the gum from being injured. 



4. The upper lip is divided, as a protection from injury while 

 gnawing bark or plants of low growth (see squirrel). 



5. The fore-feet have the form of paws, not hands, as in. the squirrel, 

 since the hare bites off its food, and does not require to hold it like the 

 former. Moreover, fore-feet constructed on the type of a hand would be 

 an impediment to it in running. (Why ?) 



D. Distribution. 



The hare is an inhabitant of the whole of Central Europe and a part 

 of Western Asia. 



Related Species. 



The nearest relative of our common hare is the Alpine Hare 

 (L. variabilis). It inhabits the High Alps and a great part of Northern 

 Europe. Its coat in the summer is of an earthy colour, but in winter 

 becomes snow-white (protective colouring). In the mild climate of 

 Ireland, however, it does not assume this winter coat, and in the extreme 

 north it is white all the year round. 



The Rabbit (L. cuniculus). — The rabbit, by preference, takes up its 

 abode in sandy places, digging holes or burrows, with many ramifications, 

 on sunny slopes, which it leaves at nightfall for the purpose of feeding. 

 It has been domesticated on account of its excellent meat and its great 

 fecundity (as many as sixty young being produced in a year). In 

 consequence of this great reproductive power, their habit of living 



