210 
PASSIONAL ZOOLOGY. 
seasons, like the earth, and that its color should be confounded 
with the soil so as to deceive the eyes of its numerous enemies. I 
have however met with white hares as well as white partridges 
in the environs of Paris. I have also seen a black hare from the 
same precincts, and a colony of black rabbits in the woods of 
Meudon. 
The size of the hare increases toward the north, and diminishes 
toward the south. The hare of Algiers is hardly half as large as 
that of France. The smallest of all is the Egyptian, remarkable 
for the prodigious development of its ears. The largest hares of 
the eighty-six departments of France come to us from Flanders 
and Alsace, the richest and best cultivated. The hare of the 
woods is generally stronger than that of the plain. 
The hare deserves to occupy an honorable place in the archives 
of gastrosophy. I know not why Moses should have forbidden 
its flesh, and declared it impure. The Romans, who were great 
eaters, were far from partaking this repugnance, as I judge at 
least by these lines of Martial : 
“ Inter aves turdus, 
Inter quadrnpedes gloria prima lepns.” 
THE STAG. 
Victim reserved for the honors of royal slaughter, for the beauty 
of its body — eternal object of the cupidity ;pf the pack for the ex- 
cellence of its flesh. 
Noble and mild nature, victim- creature ; another beast of the 
good God ! 
For there are beasts of the good God, as there are beasts of 
the devil. The swallow and the w^agtail are birds of the good 
God. The owl and the kite are birds of the devil. The fox — 
emblem of the attorney, and the he goat — emblem of brutal lux- 
ury, proceed from Satan ; the ox and the sheep — emblems of the 
exploited laborer, proceed from the good God. 
There is also the double doctrine of the good and evil principles. 
There are the apostles of the good God, the Socialists who 
reclaim the right to live, and who write that happiness is the des- 
