130 NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 



ther says, that the hare at Hudson's Bay, and in Canada, (the hare of which I speak,) 

 perfectly corresponds with the Swedish hare, being in summer of a brownish gray colour, 

 and in winter of a snowy white. Mr. Pennant says, that the varying hare weighs only 

 six pounds and a half, the common hare upwards of eight pounds, and the American hare, 

 or our wild rabbit, from three pounds eight ounces to four pounds and a half; and he 

 says that the first is met with in Canada and Newfoundland, after which the species 

 ceases to the southward, or at least he has no authority for its being continued ; the hare 

 of New England seeming, by Josselyn's account, to be the American hare or wild rabbit, 

 that it inhabits Greenland, and is found about the rocks at Churchill, and the straits of 

 Hudson's Bay, but that it is not common. We must, therefore, succumb to these great 

 authorities, and acknowledge that our hare is, at least, a variety of the Iepus variabilis of 

 Europe. So far, however, from being confined to Canada, as is represented, it is in great 

 numbers about Albany, and has been seen near forty miles to the south of that place, on 

 the east side of the Hudson. Its food is said to be grass, white moss, and the bark of 

 the birch-tree, of which it is very fond ; it does not burrow in the ground, but harbours 

 in hollow trees. Dr. Williams, in his History of Vermont, says, that a large hare weighs 

 eight pounds, and the largest rabbit seven pounds. Hearne saw the varying hare as far 

 north as latitude seventy-two, and says it sometimes weighs fourteen or fifteen pounds. 



As connected with this subject it may not be amiss to observe, that it is not probable 

 that either our hare or rabbit can be domesticated. The common rabbit of Europe, 

 however, would flourish here, and its skin alone would render it an object to have warrens 

 made for its habitation. Its amazing fecundity is well known. It lives to the age of 

 eight or nine years, and is capable of procreating at five or six months. The female is 

 gravid thirty or thirty-one days, and she will bear seven times annually, and produce five 

 young at each time. Supposing this to happen during the space of four years, and that 

 three of the young at each producing are females, the increase will be 478,062. This 

 exceeds the fecundity of the pigeon, which, according to Pliny, may produce, from one 

 oair, 14,760 in four years. Until of late years the gray rabbit was the only species in 

 the English warrens ; at present the silver-haired rabbit is sought after, and has, within 

 the few last years, supplanted the other, because the skin is dressed as a fur, and sells for 

 more. (Daniel's Rural Sports, vol. 1.) It is believed that the tame rabbit which 

 has been brought into this country in a domestic state, is not the proper rabbit for 

 stocking warrens. It is not a little surprising that this easy source of profit has been 

 entirely overlooked with us. 



