UPLAND SHOOTING. 
101 
cisive of species and genera, can be of the weight ascribed to 
them ; and will persist, even after they are informed to the con¬ 
trary, in supporting their own opinion against the definitions of 
science ; which is, in fact, not one whit less ridiculous than it 
were for any one to dispute with the philosopher the earth’s 
roundness, or the sun’s volume, because his eyes cannot discern 
all that is taught by science. 
The European Hare, it is well known, is more than double 
the size and weight of the American variety; weighing, when 
full grown, from six to eight pounds ; and measuring two feet in 
length—while the American congener is not above eighteen 
inches long, at the utmost, and does not weigh above two 
pounds. It is natural enough, therefore, that the European 
sportsman should be inclined to doubt the fact, associating his 
ideas of the animal with the large kind which he has hunted or 
shot at home, when he is told that the little grayish creature, 
w T hich so very closely resembles the Rabbit of his country in 
size, is not a Rabbit but a Hare. 
In many points, moreover, connected with his haunts, habits 
and history, the small Hare of America resembles the Rabbit of 
the eastern continent; although in others more marked, and, in- 
indeed, positively decisive of his species, the two animals differ 
entirely. 
The points of similarity lie in this, that the smaller American 
Hare, like the Rabbit of Europe, loves craggy and inaccessible 
wooded hill-sides ; and, when hard pressed by dogs, will betake 
itself to holes and clefts in the rock; and that he has the same 
skulking habit, and much the same motion. 
The great difference is, that he never dwells in vast congrega¬ 
tions, or warrens, and never burrows in the earth for his habi¬ 
tual dwelling-place. This point, with some others, of structure 
and breeding, is decisive against his being a Rabbit. 
u The American Hare —Lepus Americanus —vulg. The Rabbit. 
u Length, from nose to tip of hind claws, 16 inches; length 
