VERTEBEATA. 
or pass into a state of torpidity, even in the severest winters; and for a great part of tlie year at 
least — its liaiints have comparatively few visitors in the winter — it evinces nearly the same fertil- 
ity and disposition to breed as those of its congeners which inhabit the most fertile places. 
It is altogether a very interesting animal, on account of the peculiarity of its haunts and the 
determination, or rather the adaptation, with which it braves the utmost severity and duration of 
the winter storms. In the winter months, even when the storms are most severe and the snow 
lies longest upon the ground, these hares do not descend to the low grounds, but reside in bur- 
rows under the snow. These burrows are usually made near the root of some tuft or upland 
bush, by means of which a sort of chimney is kept open for the breathing of the animal, and it 
feeds upon the substance of the tuft. As it preserves its high temperature during the rigor of the 
weather, it also of course keeps up its rapid circulation, and requires a corresponding quantity of 
breathing and of food. Under the snow, and with their thick and white fur, these animals have 
no uncomfortable place of residence. Snow, till it melts, is a bad conductor of heat, and there- 
fore the shelter of unmelted snow is really warmer than that of a hole in the earth. The white 
fur of the animal prevents the escape of heat from its body to the snow around it, and the warm 
air which it gives out in breathing speedily mounts up in the colder atmosphere, producing com- 
paratively little effect on the breathing-chimney. In a sunny day, when the air is still and clear 
over the snow, the retreats of these animals can be discovered by the little column of steam which 
ascends from the breathing-chimney, and which forms a sort of miniature picture of the smoke 
from the snow-house of an Esquimaux. 
This species is found principally in the north of Asia, and in Russia and the mountainous parts 
of central Europe, but is sometimes met with in the Alps and Pyrenees, and also in Scotland. 
The Irish Hare, L. Hihernicus^ is somewhat larger than the common hare; the head is rather 
shorter; the ears are even shorter than the head, while those of the English hare are fully an 
inch longer; the limbs are proportionally shorter; and the hinder-legs do not much exceed the 
fore-legs in length. The fur is also different: it is composed exclusively of the uniform soft and 
shorter hair which, in the common species, is mixed with the black-tipped long hairs that cause 
the peculiar mottled appearance of that animal; it is therefore of a uniform reddish-brown color 
on the back and sides. The ears are reddish-gray, blackish at the tip, with a dark line near 
the outer margin. The tail is nearly of the same relative length as in the common species. Not- 
withstanding these differences, however, some authors have suspected that this is a variety of the 
Varying Hare. 
Among the other species of this animal are the Caspian Hare, L. Caspicus, which frequents 
the borders of that sea; the L. AUmms, found in the north of Europe and Asia; Z. borealis, 
found in Sweden, and subject to an annual change of color similar to that of the Alpine hare, 
and the L. canescens, also of Sweden. M., Schimper maintains that there is a difference between 
the variable hares of the Alps and of Russia,, and proposes to give the former the designation of 
L. Aljnnus. This separation of species, however,, is not established. 
The L. toldi resembles both the common and the nimble hare, but the head is larger and nar- 
rower than either ; its color is not changeable. The L. Thibetanus of Thibet, greatly resembles 
the common hare. Beside these, two species found in Nepaul, the L, pallipes and L. cemodius, 
are mentioned, though not fully described, by naturalists. The L. nigricollis is of Java ; the 
L. ruficauda tus of Bengal, Nepaul, and the Himmaleh Mountains ; the X. macrotus of India ; the 
Z. sinensis of China. The L. Syriacus is found on Mount Lebanon ; the L. Arabicus in the deserts 
of Arabia. 
To this list of European and Asiatic hares we must add the following African species : The 
L. Mediterraneus of Algiers and Sicily; the Abyssinian Hare, L. Habessinicus ; the Egyptian 
Hare, Z. ^gyptius ; L. isabellinus or oethiopicus, found in Nubia ; the Rock Hare, L. saxa- 
tilis, found in the mountains, and the Ylakte Haas, L. Cajjensis, found iu the plains, of the 
Cape of Good Hope. Of this region also is the Barrow Hare, L. arenarius. 
America is even more fertile in its variety of hares than the other quarters of the globe, at least 
a dozen species being identified. The best known is that which goes under the name of Gray 
Rabbit, L, sylvaticus ; this resembles the common European rabbit, X. cuniculus, in its wild 
