[ 4 ] 
II. Investigation of the fpecific Characters 
which difiinguifh the Rabbit from the 
Hare : In a Letter to Samuel Y\ r ecg ? 
Efq\ T. and Vice-Prefident of the R. S. 
from the Honourable Daines Barrington, 
V, P. R. S. 
• • t. • 
c ■ - • - ■ --- •* - - • . . i. l .. j 
Dear Sir, 
November 24, 1771 
Read Jan. l6 -lT CALLED lately at your houfe, to 
1 ^ 2 ‘ meafure fome parts of the quadruped 
which you have received by the lad fhip from Hud- 
(on’s Bay, and am now convinced that it fhould be 
rather confidered as a Hare than as a Rabbit, which 
latter name it hath obtained in that part of the 
world. 
You will find indeed, from what I am going to 
date, that it is not very eafy to fettle a fpechic, and 
at the fame time fcientific difference, between thefe 
two animals, even when the greated authorities in 
Natural Hidory are confulted. 
Ray j [a] makes the didindtion between the Hare 
and the Rabbit to condd in the fmaller fize of the 
latter, its property of burrowing, and the greater 
whitenefs of the flefh when dreffed : he chiefly relies, 
lioweyer, on the one being larger than the other ; 
Nj Syn, Quadr. Art, Lepus. 
as 
