540 DR. D. G. THOMSON S NOTES ON A TAME HARE. 
VI. 
NOTES ON A TAME HARE. 
By Dr. D. G. Thomson. 
Read 28 th January, 1908. 
It is with some diffidence I bring these few notes before this 
learned Society, for I am alive to the fact that they are 
more desultory and casual than scientific, however, I believe 
even such notes on the nature and habits of animals are 
acceptable to the members as well as more purely scientific 
contributions to our ‘ Transactions.’ Most of us are 
acquainted with the Hare from a zoological and from the 
sportsman’s point of view, but beyond Cowper’s well-known 
notes on his tame Hares, I have found but few details in our 
natural history books on this interesting animal. It is in 
the hope of adding a little to our knowledge of details, that 
I trespass on your time this evening. 
Cowper, you may remember, had three Hares, all males. 
The first, which he got at three months old was. in spite of 
this age, easily tamed ; the second always remained wild, he 
does not give the age he acquired it ; and the third, although 
the most pugnacious and courageous of the three, was always 
tame, this last one died from the effects of damp bedding, 
he says, when full grown. The first lived nine years and died, 
he thinks, from some injury to the loins by a fall, and the 
second lived twelve years and died from gradual old age 
weakness. The poor old poet found in the periodic attacks 
of melancholy to which he was subject some gentle amuse- 
ment and solace in the care of these animals by watching 
their frolicsome gambols and amusing ways, and his 
observations and short account of them are borne out in 
many particulars by my own observations. 
