Clafs I. H A R E. S9 



The hare never pairs ; but in the rutting feafon, 

 which begins in February^ the male purfues and dif- 

 covers the female, by the fagacity of its nofe. The 

 female goes v/ith young one month, brings ufualJy 

 two young at a time -, fometimes three, and very rarely 

 four. Sir 'Thomas Brown^ in his treatife on vulgar 

 errors *, afferts the dodrine of fuperfetation ; i. e, 

 a conception upon conception, or an improvement on 

 the firfl fruit before the fecond is excluded ; and he 

 brings this animal as an inftance ; aflerting, from his 

 own obfervation, that after the lirft caft there remain 

 fuccefiive conceptions, and other younglings very im- 

 mature, and far from the term of their exclufion -, 

 but as the hare breeds very frequently in the year, 

 there is no neceffity of having recourfe to this scci- 

 dent f to account for their numbers. 



Hares are very fubjeft to fieas ; laimiiens tells us, 

 that the Dalecarlians make a fort of cloth of the fur, 

 called J?//; which, by attracting thofe infeds, pre- 

 ferves the wearer from their troublefome attacks i„ 



The hair of this creature forms a great article io. 

 the hat manufaflure ; and as this country cannot fup- 

 ply a fufficient number, vaft quantities are annually 

 imported from Ruffia and Siberia, In the latter || 

 they colled in great troops of four or five hundred^ 

 and during winter are white as the fnow they tread 

 on. They are caught in toils for the fake of their 



* P. 118. 



+ For a farther account of this doftrine, we refer the curiou 

 reader to M. Buffons works, vol. vi. p. 252, 279, &c. 



\ Faun. Suec, 25. || £s/rsTni-v/if, i. 200. 238. 



fjxins. 



