THE GUN AT HOME AND ABROAD 
with the eyes open, it may be of interest perhaps to our readers to give 
brief replies to these inquiries. (1) We know that to the Israelites of old 
the flesh of the hare was forbidden as food, for the scriptural reason given 
in Leviticus xi. 6, namely, “ the hare, because he cheweth the cud, but 
divideth not the hoof [like a ruminating animal], is unclean to you.” 
The notion that ” he cheweth the cud ” was, of course, founded upon 
imperfect observation, for the hare, not being a ruminating animal, 
has neither the teeth nor the digestive organs which are requisite for such 
a process. How then came it to be supposed that a hare chews the cud ? 
Because when reposing at ease it continually moves its jaws from side 
to side as if eating something, an action which may readily be mistaken 
for true rumination. Even the poet Cowper, who kept some tame hares for 
several years, and had constant opportunities for observing them, was 
deceived by this curious movement of the jaws. Referring to one of them, 
he says; 
‘‘ Finding him exceedingly tractable, I made it my custom to carry 
him always after breakfast into the garden, where he hid himself 
generally under the leaves of a cucumber vine, sleeping, or chewing the 
cud, till evening.” 
But the explanation of this grinding motion is simple. The chisel -like 
incisor teeth of hares, rabbits, and other rodents, or gnawing animals, 
require to be rubbed against each other in order to preserve their edge, 
shape and position, and if this be not done, the teeth get out of order, 
become greatly elongated, and sometimes grow to such a length as 
to prevent the animal from feeding. (2) To the second question, 
whether a hare sleeps with the eyes open, the answer is no, and no 
better evidence can be adduced on this point than the observations 
made by Mr Robert Drane, of Cardiff, who, like the poet Cowper, has 
kept hares in captivity, and succeeded in making them completely tame. 
In the course of an article on ‘‘ The Hare in Captivity,” published in the 
‘‘Transactions of the Cardiff Naturalists’ Society” (vol. xxvii, 1894-95), 
he writes: 
“ One of my first errors was a belief that a hare sleeps with its eyes 
open, for by no artifice or arrangement could I catch my hare with 
closed eyes. That was because we had not grown sufficiently intimate 
to lay aside our society manners; but now my hare will sleep, and 
sleeping dream, with closed eyes not only in the room where I am, 
but also on my lap.” 
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