LECTURE III. 101 



sleep in winter. At the commencement of the 

 autumnal frosts, they stop up the holes or en- 

 trances of their mansion, and gradually fall into a 

 state of torpidity, in which they continue till the 

 arrival of the succeeding spring. 



The genus Lepus or Hare, is easily distin- 

 guished among the rest of the Glires : the cutting 

 teeth in the upper jaw being disposed in a double 

 pair ; two small inner teeth being placed at the 

 base of the large or outward pair. As this is a 

 genus of which the history, (in the European 

 species at least) is well known, I shall at present 

 only particularize the distinction between the 

 common Hare and the Rabbet, which two animals 

 resemble each other so much, that the con- 

 struction of a genuine specific character of each 

 has been found a task of some difficulty -, and it 

 is a curious fact that the attempts at a specific 

 character of the Rabbet in particular, by Linnaeus, 

 in the earlier editions of his Systema Naturae, are 

 remarkable for want of precision. The criterion 

 proposed by the late Mr. Daines Barrington, in 

 the Philosophical Transactions, has been adopted 

 by modern systematic writers, and consists in the 

 comparative length of the hind legs with that of 



