in zoology, a genus of quadrupeds belonging to the order of glires. The characters are these:—They have two fore-teeth in each jaw; those in the upper-jaw are double, the interior ones being smallest. There are four species, viz.
1. The timidus, or hare, has a short tail; the points of the ears are black; the upper-lip is divided up to the nostrils; the length of the body is generally about a foot and a half; and the colour of the hair is reddish, interpered with white. The hare is naturally a timid animal. He sleeps in his form, or seat, during the day; and feeds, copulates, &c., in the night. In a moon-light evening, a number of them are sometimes seen sporting together, leaping and pursuing each other: But the least motion, the falling of a leaf, alarms them; and then they all run off separately, each taking a different route. They are extremely swift in their motion, which is a kind of gallop, or a succession of quick leaps. When pursued, they always take to the higher grounds: as their fore-feet are much shorter than the hind-ones, they run with more ease up-hill than down-hill. The hare is endowed with all those instincts which are necessary for his own preservation. In winter he chooses a form exposed to the south, and in summer to the north. He conceals himself among vegetables of the same colour with himself. Mr Fouilloux says, that he observed a hare, as soon as he heard the sound of the horn, or the noise of the dogs, although at a mile's distance, rise from her seat, swim across a rivulet, then lie down among the rushes, and by this means evade the scent of the dogs. After being chased for a couple of hours, a hare will sometimes push another from his form, and lie down in it himself. When hard pressed, the hare will mingle with a flock of sheep, run up an old wall and conceal himself among the grass on the top of it, or cross a river several times at small distances. He never runs against the wind, or straight forward; but constantly doubles about, in order to make the dogs lose their scent.
It is remarkable, that the hare, although ever so frequently pursued by the dogs, seldom leaves the place where she was brought forth, or even the form in which she usually sits. It is common to find them in the same place next day, after being long and keenly chased the day before. The females are more grous than the males, and have less strength and agility; they are likewise more timid, and never allow the dogs to approach so near their form before rising as the males. They likewise practice more arts, and double more frequently, than the males.
The hare is diffused almost over every climate; and, notwithstanding they are everywhere hunted, their species never diminishes. They are in a condition of propagating the first year of their lives; the females go with young about 30 days, and produce four or five at a time; and as soon as they have brought forth, they again admit the embraces of the male; so that they may be said to be always pregnant. The eyes of the young are open at birth; the mother suckles them about 20 days, after which they separate from her, and procure their own food. The young never go far from the place where they were brought forth; but still they live solitary, and make forms about 30 paces distant from each other: Thus, if a young hare be found anywhere, you may almost be certain of finding several others within a very small distance. The hare is not so savage as his manners would indicate. He is gentle, and susceptible of a kind of education. He is pretty easily tamed, and will even show a kind of attachment to the people of the house: But still this attachment is not so strong or lasting as to engage him to become altogether domestic; for although taken when very young, and brought up in the house, he no sooner arrives at a certain age, than he takes the first opportunity of recovering his liberty, and flying to the fields. The hare lives about seven or eight years. He feeds upon grass, and other vegetables. His flesh is excellent food.
Mr Pennant describes a species called the Alpine hare, which inhabits the summits of the Highland mountains, never descends into the vales, or mixes itself with the common kind, which is frequent in the bottoms: it lives among the rocks with ptarmigans, natives of the loftiest situations. It does not run fast; and, if pursued, is apt to take shelter beneath stones and in clefts of rocks: is easily tamed, and is very sprightly and full of frolic. It is fond of honey and caraway comfits, and is observed to eat its own dung before a storm. It is less than the common hare, weighing only 6½ lb., whereas the former weighs from 8 lb. to 12 lb. Its hair is soft and full; the predominant colour grey, mixed with a little black and tawny. In winter it entirely changes to a snowy whiteness, except the edges and tips of the ears, which retain their black colour. The alteration begins in September, and first appears about the neck and rump. In April it again resumes its grey coat. This is the case in Styria; but in the polar tracts it never varies from white, the perpetual colour of the country. In the intermediate climates between temperate and frigid, such as Scotland and Scandinavia, it regularly experiences these vicissitudes of colour.
Hares are very subject to fleas. Linnaeus tells us, that the Dalecarlians make a fort of cloth, called filt, of the fur; which, by attracting these insects, preserves the wearer from their troublesome attacks. The hair of this creature makes a great article in the hat manufacture; and, as our country cannot supply a sufficient quantity, a great deal is annually imported from Russia and Siberia. The hare was reckoned a great delicacy among the Romans; the Britons, on the contrary, thought it impious even to taste it: yet this animal was cultivated by them, either for the pleasure of the chase, or for the purposes of superstition; as we are informed, that Boadicea, immediately before her last conflict with the Romans, let loose a hare she had concealed in her bosom, which taking what was deemed a fortunate course, animated her soldiers by the omen of an easy victory over a timid enemy.
2. The cuniculus, or rabbit, has a very short tail, and naked ears. Its native country is Spain, where they were formerly taken with ferrets, as is practised in this country at present; which animals were first introduced into that country from Africa. They love a temperate and warm climate, and are incapable of bearing great cold; so that in Sweden they are obliged to be kept in houses. They abound in Britain; their furs make a considerable article in the hat manufactories; and, of late, such part of the fur as is unfit for that purpose, has been found as good as feathers for stuffing beds and bolsters. Numbers of the skins are annually exported into China. The English counties mostly noted for rabbits are Lincolnshire, Norfolk, and Cambridgeshire. Methold, in the last county, is famous for the best kind for the table: the soil there is sandy, and full of mosses and the carex grats. Rabbits swarm in the isles of Orkney, where their skins form a considerable article of commerce. Excepting otters, brown rats, common mice, and shrews, no other quadrupeds are found there. The rabbits of those isles are in general grey; those which inhabit the hills grow hoary in winter.—Formerly the silver-haired rabbits were in great esteem for lining of clothes, and their skins sold for three shillings a-piece; but since the introduction of more elegant furs, their price has fallen to 6d. The Sunk Island in the Humber was once famous for a mouse-coloured species, which has since been extirpated by reason of the injury they did to the banks by burrowing.
The fecundity of the rabbit is still greater than that of the hare. They will breed seven times in the year, and the female sometimes brings eight young ones at a time. Supposing this to happen regularly for four years, the number of rabbits from a single pair will amount to 1,274,830. By this account we might justly apprehend being overstocked with these animals; but a great number of enemies prevents their increase; not only men, but hawks and beasts of prey making dreadful havoc among them. Notwithstanding all these different enemies, however, we are told by Pliny and Strabo, that they once proved such a nuisance to the inhabitants of the Balearic islands, that they were obliged to implore the affluence of a military force from Augustus, in order to exterminate them. They devour herbage of all kinds, roots, grain, fruits, &c. They are in a condition for generating at the end of six months; and, like the hare, the female is almost constantly in season; she goes with young about 30 days, and brings forth from four to eight at a litter. A few days before littering, she digs a hole in the earth, not in a straight line, but in a zig-zag form: the bottom of this hole she enlarges every way, and then pulls off a great quantity of hair from her belly, of which she makes a kind of bed for her young. During the two first days after birth, she never leaves them, but when pressed with hunger, and then she eats quickly and returns: and in this manner she suckles and attends her young for six weeks. All this time both the hole and the young are concealed from the male; sometimes when the female goes out, she, in order to deceive the male, fills up the mouth of the hole with earth mixed with her own urine. But when the young ones begin to come to the mouth of the hole, and to eat such herbs as the mother brings to them, the father seems to know them: he takes them betwixt his paws, smooths their hair, and caresses them with great fondness.
3. The capensis has a tail about the length of his head, and red legs. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope.
4. The brasiliensis has no tail. It is a native of South-America.
in astronomy. See there, n° 206.