260 Firtp Museum or Natura History — Zoézocy, Vot. XI. 
373, yy, 3-3 = 98, 
2-2 3-3 
While the names, Hares and Rabbits, are often indiscriminately 
applied to members of the family, the first is properly restricted to 
those which do not use burrows in the ground and the young of which 
are born covered with hair and with their eyes open. Rabbits, on the 
contrary, use burrows and holes in the earth* and the young are born 
naked, with their eyes closed. Hares and Rabbits are very prolific. 
In many cases the young animals begin to breed when about six months 
old. The young number from 4 to 6 and it is claimed that two or more 
litters are born in a season. 
In ancient times the Hare was thought to be of great therapeutic 
value, and Avicenna (1608), Arnoldus, Topsell and others recommend 
the use of various parts of its body as a cure for a long list of human 
ailments ranging from tuberculosis to alopecia. Regarding the treat 
ment of the latter, Topsell says: ‘‘The powder of the wooll of a Hare 
burned, mingled with the oyle of Mirtles, the gal of a Bull, and Allum 
warmed at the fire and annoint it uppon the heade, fasteneth the haire 
from falling off. . . . The head of a Hare burned and mingled with fat 
of Beares and vinegar, causeth haire to come where it is fallen off, and 
Gallen saith that some have used the whole body of a Hare so burned 
and mingled, for the foresaid cure, being layed in manner of a 
plaister.” (Historie Foure Footed Beastes, Lond., 1607, p. 274.) 
The Hare (and Rabbitt) has always played an important part 
in mythology and folklore.t Even at the present day the animal is 
popularly associated with paschal eggs as symbolic of the festival of 
Easter; and there is a wide spread superstition, especially among 
negroes, that the left hind foot of a Rabbit taken under certain con- 
ditions is of great value as a talisman.§ 
can 252 
manent dentition, I. a Pm. 
* The European Rabbit digs burrows, as do their domestic descendents in this 
country, but with rare exceptions indigenous North American species do not. They 
use holes, however, made by other animals and often enlarge them. 
} Hares and Rabbits are apparently considered identical in Zodlogical Mythol- 
ogy. 
_ {See Gubernatis, Zoél. Mythol., London, 1872; also Massey, The Natural Gen- 
esis, London, 1883. 
§ There is a curious superstition among negroes in many parts of the United 
States regarding the efficacy of the ‘‘left hind foot of a graveyard rabbit killed in the 
dark of the moon”’ in bringing good fortune to its possessor. 
