[ 12 ] 
I do not mean, however, to affert from this, that 
a Hare and Rabbit are certainly of a diftinCt fpecies ; 
as this can only be fettled by failing to procure a 
mixed breed between the animals after repeated ex- 
periments, and under proper circumftances. 
I fhall now add, that the Hudfon’s Bay animal alfo 
approaches nearer to the Hare than the Rabbit, by 
the fore legs being much more (lender, in proportion 
to the hind legs than thofe of a Rabbit are j and that 
the claws are alfo (horter. As the animal likewife 
happened to die on the 2 2d of this month, I boiled 
the flefh, by your permiffion, which was as brown 
as that of the European Hare ; and confequently it is 
to be claffed as of that fpecies, according to Ray's 
third criterion. 
But the mod curious particular in this quadruped 
is- the white winter coat, which- covered, at its death, 
the greatefl part of the animal. 
This refutes at ones the notion, that animals- in 
the more Northern countries become white bv the 
J 
intenfe cold of the climate, becaufe this quadruped 
arrived in England about the time that the change 
(hould have begun if it had continued in Hudfon’s 
Bay. 
As the animal was born, however, in a country 
where fnow covers the ground during the whole 
winter, it is providential that the formation of its 
parts and juices (hould be fuch as (hould periodically 
occafion fuch a change in the fur ■, and perhaps, it is 
the only quadruped which ever was brought from a 
climate of fuch rigour, to a more temperate one, 
before the alteration of the colour in its hair took 
place. 
By 
