574 On the Hispid Hare of the Saul forest. [June, 



animal the Black Hare or Saul forest Hare, both excellent names — and 

 t hey tell me that it feeds chiefly on roots and the bark of trees, a circum- 

 stance as remarkably in harmony with the extraordinary rodent power 

 of its structure as are its small eyes and ears, weighty body and short 

 strong legs, with what has been just stated relative the rest of its habits. 

 The whole forms a beautiful instance of adaptation without the slightest 

 change of organism ; for neither in the hard nor soft anatomy of the 

 forest Hare is there the least essential deviation from those of the Hare 

 of the open country, but only a modification of the same type suited to 

 the peculiar life of each, as respective tenants of the open and culti- 

 vated country and of the rude and dense wild. Why the Hare of the 

 plains, and not that of the forest, should pass into the mountains, 

 apparently so much better suited to the latter species, we cannot con- 

 jecture : and, though this fact is an argument in favour of considering 

 the Hispid or forest Hare as a separate type — an argument that may be 

 yet further sustained by those differences in external form which very 

 noticeably segregate it from the common Hares of England and of 

 Hindosthan (Timidus and Ruficaudatus), yet, on the other hand, its 

 essential anatomical identity with these animals, and the manner in 

 which the marked diversity of external form just noticed, as well as 

 other peculiarities of habit above recorded, are gradually lost as we pass 

 to other species of true Hare, are arguments of weight against any 

 generic or sub-generic separation. In the Timid and red-tailed Hares 

 the long ears, the large eyes, the frame as well suited to extreme speed 

 as the eyes and ears to effective vigilance, are certainly in remarkable 

 contrast with the small eyes and ears, heavy frame and short equal legs 

 of the forest hare : but all these distinctions, as well as those of domi- 

 cile, become less and less tangible in the variable Hare, the Rabbit, the 

 Tolai, and the Tapiti,* in which moreover we have variously repro- 

 duced, even to the subordinate peculiarities of the Indian forest Hare, 

 such as its white flesh, its short tail, its subterranean retreat and 

 creeping adhesion thereto, so unlike the dashing career of the red- 

 tailed and English species. With these few remarks upon the pro- 

 priety or otherwise of separating the Hispid Hare from his congeners, 

 I now proceed to what will more fully illustrate that point, viz. a 



* See Shaw, Vol. II. voce Tolai and Re»-ne animal ad locum and Naturalist's 

 Library, Vol. xiii. PI. 2tf. 



