Class I. HARE. 127 



sues and discovers the female, by the sagacity of 

 its nose. The female goes with young one 

 month, brings usually two young at a time, 

 sometimes three, and very rarely four. Sir 

 Thomas Brown, in his treatise on vulgar errors,* 

 asserts the doctrine of superfetation ; i. e. a 

 conception upon conception, or an improve- 

 ment on the first fruit before the second is ex- 

 cluded, and he brings this animal as an in- 

 stance; asserting, from his own observation, 

 that after the first cast there remain successive 

 conceptions, and other younglings very imma- 

 ture, and far from the term of their exclusion ; 

 but as the hare breeds very frequently in the 

 year, there is no necessity of having recourse to 

 this accident f to account for their numbers. 

 The antients were acquainted with this circum- 

 stance. Horace alludes to it in the fourth satire 

 of the second book. 



Fcecundi leporis sapiens sectabitur armos> 



says the bon vivant, " every man of taste will 

 " prefer the wing of the fruitful hare." Flint/ 

 as a philosopher is more explicit, and assigning 

 a moral reason for the great encrease of this ani- 



* P. 118. 



+ For a further account of this doctrine, we refer the curious 

 reader to M. de Bufforis works, vol. vi. p. 252, 279, &rc. 



