C *2] 



I do not mean, however, to afTert from this, that- 

 a Hare and Rabbit are certainly of a diftinctfpecies:; 

 as this can only be fettled by failing to procure a 

 mixed breed between the animals after repeated eXr- 

 periments, and under proper circumftances. 



I (hall now add> that the Hudfon's Bay animal alfo 

 approaches nearer to the Hare than the Rabbit, by 

 the fore legs being much more (lender in proportion 

 to the hind legs than thofe of a Rabbit are -> and that 

 the claws are alfo fhorter. As the animal like wife 

 happened to die on the 2 2d of this month, I boiled 

 the rlefh, by your permiffion, which was as brown- 

 as.that of the European Hare j and confequently it is 

 to be claffed as of that fpecies, according to Ray's 

 third criterion. 



But the moil curious particular in this quadruped-' 

 is the white winter coat, which covered, at its death, 

 the greateft part of the animal. 



This refutes at once the notion, that animals in. 

 the more Northern countries become white by the 

 intenfe cold of the climate, becaufe this quadruped 

 arrived- in England about the time that the change - 

 ihould have begun if it had continued in Hudfon's - 

 Bay. 



As the animal was born, however, in a country 

 where -mow covers the ground during the whole 

 winter, it is providential that the formation of ks 

 parts and juices mould be fuch as mould periodically 

 occafion fuch a change in the fur; and perhaps, it is 

 the only quadruped which ever was brought from a 

 climate of fuch rigour, to a more, temperate one, 

 before the alteration of the. colour in its hair. took, 

 place. 



By 



