COMMON HARE. 
m 
well as dangerous to the timid animals we are des- 
cribing ; their food is easily procured ; and their 
associations, instead of protection, would only ex- 
pose them to their pursuers. They seldom, how- 
ever, separate far from each other, or from the 
place where they were produced ; but make each 
a form at some distance, haying a predilection 
rather for the place, than each other’s society. 
They feed during the night rather than by day, 
choosing the more tender blades of grass, and 
quenching their thirst with the dew. They live 
also upon roots, leaves, fruits, and corn, and pre- 
fer such plants as are furnished with a milky juice. 
They also strip the bark of trees during the win- 
ter, there being scarce any that they will not feed 
on, except the lime or the alder. They are parti- 
cularly fond of birch, pinks, and parsley. When 
they are kept tame, they are fed with lettuce and 
other garden herbs ; but the flesh of such as are 
thus brought up is always indifferent. 
As their limbs are made for running, they ea- 
sily outstrip all other animals in the beginning ; 
and could they preserve their speed, it would be 
impossible to overtake them ; but as they exhaust 
their strength at their first efforts, and double back 
to the place they were started from, they are more 
easily taken than the fox, which is a much slower 
animal than they. As their hind legs are longer 
than tlib fore, they always choose to turn up hill, 
by which the speed of their pursuers is diminished, 
while theirs remains the same. Their motions are al- 
so without any noise, as they have the sole of the foot 
furnished with hair ; and they seem the only ani- 
mals that have hair on the inside of their mouths. 
They seldom live above seven or eight years at 
the utmost ; they come to their full perfection in 
a year ; and this multiplied by seven, as in other 
animals, gives the extent of their lives* It is s'aidy 
