disposition, except that it seems tamed much more easily. Belonius assures us that he has seen them in the houses at Constantinople as tame as cats, and that they were permitted to run everywhere about without doing the slightest mischief. For this reason they have been called the "cats of Constantinople"-although they have little more in common with that animal except their skill in spying out and destroying vermin. Naturalists pretend that it inhabits only the moister grounds, and chiefly resides along the banks of rivers, having never been found in mountains or dry places. The species is not much diffused; it is not to be found in any part of Europe except Spain and Turkey: it requires a warm climate to subsist and multiply in; and yet it is not to be found in the warmer regions of India or Africa. From such as have seen its uses at Constantinople, I learn that it is one of the most beautiful, cleanly, and industrious animals in the world; that it keeps whatever house it is in perfectly free from mice and rats, which cannot endure its smell. Added to this, its nature is mild and gentle, its colours various and glossy, its fur valuable; and, upon the whole, it seems to be one of those animals which with proper care might be propagated amongst us, and might become one of the most serviceable of our domestics.

THE CIVET.-Proceeding from the smaller to the greater of this kind, we come in the first place to the civet, which is much larger than any of the former; for as the martin is not above sixteen inches long, the civet is found to be above thirty. Mr. Buffon distinguishes this species into two kinds, one of which he calls the "civet," and the other the zibet." The latter principally differs from the former in having the body longer and more slender, the nose smaller, the ears longer and broader-no mane or long hair running down the back in the latter; and the tail is longer and better marked with rings of different colours from one end to the other. These are the differences which have induced this great naturalist to suppose them animals of distinct species, and to allot each a separate description. How far future experience may confirm this conjecture time must discover; but certain it is, that if such small varieties make a separate class there may be a great many other animals equally entitled to peculiar distinction that now are classed together. We shall therefore content ourselves at present with considering, as former naturalists have done, these two merely as varieties of the same animal, and only altered in figure by climate, food, or education.

The civet resembles animals of the weasel kind in the long slenderness of its body, the shortness of its legs, the odorous matter that exudes from the glands behind, the softness of its fur, the number of its claws, and their incapacity of being sheathed. It differs from them in being much larger than any hitherto described; in having the nose lengthened, so as to resemble that of the fox; the tail long, and tapering to a point; and its ears straight, like those of a cat. The colour of the civet varies; it is commonly ash-colour, spotted with black; though it is whiter in the female, tending to yellow, and the spots are much larger, like those of the panther. The colour on the belly and under the throat is black, whereas the other parts of the body are black or streaked with grey. This animal varies in its colour, being sometimes streaked, as in our kind of cats called "tabbies." It has whiskers like the rest of its kind; and its eye is a beautiful black.

The opening of the pouch or bag, which is the receptacle of the civet, differs from that of the rest of the weasel kind-not opening into, but under, the anus. Besides this opening, which is large, there is still another lower down, but for what purposes designed is not at present known. The pouch itself is about two inches and a half broad and two long; its opening makes a

chink from the top downwards, which is about the same length as the pouch is broad, and is covered on the edges and within with short hair; when the two sides are drawn asunder the inward cavity may be seen, large enough to hold a small pullet's egg; all round this are small glands, opening and furnishing that strong perfume which is so well known, and is found in this pouch of the colour and consistence of pomatum. Those who make it their business to breed these animals for their perfume usually take it from them twice or thrice a week, and sometimes oftener. The animal is kept in a sort of long box, in which it cannot turn round. The breeder, therefore, opens this box behind, drags the animal backwards by the tail, keeps it in this position by a bar before, and, with a wooden spoon, takes the civet from the pouch as carefully as he can; he then lets the tail go and shuts the box again. The perfume thus procured is put into a vessel, which he takes care to keep closed; and when a sufficient quantity is procured it is sold to great advantage.

The civet, although a native of the warmest climates, is found to live in temperate and even in cold countries, provided it be defended carefully from the injuries of the air. Wherefore it is not only bred among the Turks, the Indians, and the Africans, but great numbers of these animals are also bred in Holland, where this scraping people make no small gain of its perfume. The perfume of Amsterdam is reckoned the purest of any-the people of other countries adulterating it with gums and other matters, which diminish its value but increase its weight. The quantity which a single animal affords generally depends upon its health and nourishment. It gives most in proportion as it is more delicately and abundantly fed. Raw flesh hashed small, eggs, rice, birds, young fowls, and particularly fish, are the kinds of food the civet more delights in. These are to be changed and altered to suit and entice its appetite and continue its health. It gets but very little water; and although it drinks but rarely, yet it makes urine very frequently; and upon such occasions we cannot, as in other animals, distinguish the male from the female.

The perfume of the civet is so strong that it commu nicates itself to all parts of the animal's body; the fur is impregnated thereby, and the skin penetrated to such a degree that it continues to preserve the odour for a long time after it is stript off. If a person be shut up with one of them in a close room he cannot support the perfume which is so copiously diffused. When the animal is irritated, as in all the weasel kind, its scent is much more violent than ordinary; and if it be tormented so as to make it sweat, it emits a very strong perfume, and serves to adulterate or increase what is otherwise obtained from it. In general it is sold in Holland for about fifty shillings an ounce; though, like all other commodities, its value alters in proportion to the demand. Civet must be chosen new, of good consistence, a whitish colour, and a strong, disagreeable smell. There is still a very considerable traffic carried on from Busserah, Calicut, and other places in India, where the animal that produces it is bred-from the Levant, also from Guinea, and especially from Brazil, in South America, although Mr. Buffon is of opinion that the animal is a native only of the Old Continent, and not to be found wild in the New. The best civet, however, is furnished, as was observed, by the Dutch, though not in such quantities at present as some years past when this perfume was more in fashion. Civet is a much more grateful perfume than musk, to which it has a resemblance; and was some years ago used for the same purposes in medicine. But at present it is quite discontinued in prescriptions; and persons of taste or elegance seem to proseribe it from their toilet. Perfumes, like dress, have their vicissitudes; musk was in peculiar repute until displaced by civet; both gave ground upon discovering the manner of preparing ambergris; and even this is now disused for the less powerful vegetable

kinds of fragrance-spirit of lavender, or otto of roses. As to the rest, the civet is said to be a wild, fierce animal; and, although sometimes tamed, is never thoroughly familiar. Its teeth are strong and cutting, although its claws are feeble and inflexible. It is light and active, and lives by prey as the rest of its kind, pursuing birds and other small animals that it is able to overcome. They are sometimes seen stealing into the yards and outhouses to seize upon the poultry; their eyes shine in the night, and it is very probable that they see better in the dark than by day. When they fail of animal food they are found to subsist on roots and fruits, and very seldom drink; for which reason they are never found near great waters. They breed very fast in their native climates, where the heat seems to conduce to their propagation; but in our temperate latitudes, although they furnish their perfume in great quantities, yet they are not found to multiply-a proof that their perfume has no analogy with their appetite for generation.

THE GLUTTON.-I will add but one animal more to this numerous class of the weasel kind—namely, the glutton, which for several reasons seems to belong to this tribe and this only. We have hitherto had no precise description of this quadruped-some resembling it to a badger, some to a fox, and some to a hyæna. Linnæus places it among the weasels from the similitude of its teeth; it would seem to me to resemble this animal still more from the great length of its body and the shortness of its legs-from the shortness of its fur, its disagreeable scent, and its insatiable appetite for animal food. Mr. Klein, who saw one of them which was brought alive from Siberia, assures us that it was about three feet long, and about a foot and a half high. If we compare these dimensions with those of other animals, we shall find that they approach more nearly to the class we are at present describing than any other; and that the glutton may very justly be conceived under the form of a great, overgrown weasel. Its nose, its ears, its teeth, and its long bushy tail are entirely familiar; and as to what is said of its being rather corpulent than slender, it is most probable that those who described it thus saw it after eating, at which time its belly is very much distended: however, suspending all certainty upon this subject, I will take leave rather to follow Linnæus than Buffon in describing this animal, and leave future experience to judge between them.

The glutton, which is so called from its voracious appetite, is an animal found as well in the north of Europe and Siberia as in the northern parts of America, where it has the name of the "carcajou." Amidst the variety of descriptions which have been given of it no very just idea can be formed of its figure; and, indeed, some naturalists, among whom was Ray, entirely doubted of its existence. From the best accounts we have of it, however, the body is thick and long, the legs short; it is black along the back, and of a redish brown on the sides; its fur is held in the highest estimation for its softness and beautiful gloss; the tail is bushy like that of the weasel, but rather shorter; and its legs and claws are better fitted for climbing trees than for running along the ground. Thus far it entirely resembles the weasel; and its manner of taking its prey is also by surprise, and not by pursuit.

Scarce any of the animals with short legs and long bodies pursue their prey; but, knowing their own incapacity to overtake it by swiftness, either creep upon it in its retreats, or wait in ambush and seize it with a bound. The glutton, from the make of its legs and the length of its body, must be particularly slow; and consequently its only resource is in taking its prey by surprise. All the rest of the weasel kind, from the smallness of their size, are better fitted for a life of insidious rapine than this; they can pursue their prey into its retreats-they can lurk unseen among the branches of trees, and hide

themselves with ease under the leaves; but the glutton is too large to follow small prey into their retreats-nor would such, even if obtained, be sufficient to sustain it. For these reasons, therefore, this animal seems naturally compelled to the life for which it has long been remarkable. Its only resource is to climb a tree, which it does with great ease, and there it waits with patience until some large animal passes underneath, upon which it darts with unerring certainty and destroys it. It is chiefly in North America that this voracious creature is seen lurking among the thick branches of trees in order to surprise the deer, with which the extensive forests of that part of the world abound. Endued with a degree of patience equal to its rapacity, the glutton singles out such trees as it observes marked by the teeth or the antlers of the deer, and is known to remain there watching for several days together. If it has fixed upon a wrong tree, and finds that the deer have either left that part of the country or cautiously shun the place, it reluctantly descends, pursues the beaver to its retreat, or even ventures into the water in pursuit of fishes. But if it happens that, by long attention and keeping close, at last the elk or the rein-deer happens to pass that way, it at once darts down upon them, sticks its claws between their shoulders, and remains there unalterably firm. It is in vain that the large, frightened animal increases its speed or threatens with its branching horns; the glutton having taken possession of its post, nothing can drive it off; its enormous prey drives rapidly along amongst the thickest woods, rubs itself against the largest trees, and tears down the branches with its expanded horns; but still its insatiable foe sticks behind, eating its neck, and digging its passage to the great blood-vessels which lie in that part. Travellers who wander through those deserts often see pieces of the glutton's skin sticking to the trees against which it was rubbed by the deer. But the animal's voracity is greater than its feelings, and it never seizes without bringing down its prey. When, therefore, the deer, wounded and feeble with the loss of blood, falls, the glutton is seen to make up for its former abstinence by its present voracity. As it is not possessed of a feast of this kind every day, it resolves to lay in a store to serve it for a good while to come. It is, indeed, amazing how much these animals can eat at a time. That which was seen by Mr. Klein-although without exercise or air, although taken from its native climate and enjoying but an indifferent state of healthwas seen to eat thirteen pounds of flesh every day, and yet remain unsatisfied. We may therefore easily conceive how much more it must devour at once after a long fast of a food of its own procuring, and in the climate most natural to its constitution. We are told, accordingly, that from being a lank, thin animal, which it naturally is, it then gorges in such quantities that its belly is distended and its whole figure seems to alter. Thus voraciously it continues eating until, incapable of any other animal function, it lies totally torpid by the animal it has killed, and in this situation continues for two or three days. In this loathsome and helpless state it finds its chief protection from its horrid smell, which few animals care to come near; so that it continues eating and sleeping till its prey be devoured, bones and all, and then it mounts into a tree in quest of other adventures.

The glutton, like many others of the weasel kind, seems to prefer the most putrid flesh to that newly killed; and such is the voracity of this hateful creature, that if its swiftness and strength were equal to its rapacity it would soon clear the forest of every other living creature. But fortunately it is so slow that there is scarce a quadruped that cannot escape it, except the beaver. This, therefore, it very frequently pursues upon land; but the beaver generally makes good its retreat by taking to the water, where the glutton has no chance to succeed. This pursuit only happens in summer; for in winter all

that remains is to attack the beaver's house, as at that time it never stirs from home. This attack, however, seldom succeeds; for the beaver has a covert way bored under the ice, and the glutton has only the trouble and disappointment of sacking an empty town.

A life of necessity generally produces a good fertile invention. The glutton, continually pressed by the calls of appetite, and having neither swiftness nor activity to satisfy it, is obliged to make up by stratagem the defects of Nature. It is often seen to examine the traps and the snares laid for other animals, in order to anticipate the fowlers. It is said to practise a thousand arts to procure its prey-to steal upon the retreats of the reindeer, the flesh of which animal it loves in preference to all others; to lie in wait for such animals as have been maimed by the hunters; to pursue the isatis while it is hunting for itself, and when that animal has run down its prey, to come in and seize upon the whole, and sometimes to devour even the poor provider; when these pursuits fail, even to dig up the graves and fall upon the bodies interred there, devouring them bones and all. For these reasons the natives of the countries where the glutton inhabits hold it in utter detestation, and usually term it the vulture of quadrupeds. And yet it is extraordinary enough that, being so very obnoxious to man, it does not seem to fear him. We are told by Gemelin of one of these coming up boldly and calmly where there were several persons at work, without testifying the smallest apprehension, or attempting to run until it had received several blows that at last totally disabled it. In all probability it came among them seeking its prey; and, having been used to attack animals of inferior strength, it had no idea of a force superior to its own. The glutton, like all the rest of its kind, is a solitary animal, and is never seen in company except with its female, with which it couples in the midst of winter. The latter goes with young about four months, and brings forth two or three at a time. They burrow in holes as the weasel; and the male and female are generally found together, both equally resolute in defence of their young. Upon this occasion the boldest dogs are afraid to approach them; they fight obstinately and bite most cruelly. However, as they are unable to escape by flight, the hunters come to the assistance of the dogs and easily overpower them. Their flesh, it may readily be supposed, is not fit to be eaten but the skins amply recompense the hunters for their toil and danger. The fur has the most beautiful lustre that can be imagined, and is preferred before all others, except that of the Siberian fox or the sable. Among other peculiarities of this animal, Linnæus informs us that it is very difficult to be skinned; but from what cause, whether its abominable stench or the skin's tenacity to the flesh, he has not thought fit to inform us.

ANIMALS OF THE HARE KIND.

BOOK V.-CHAP. I.

INTRODUCTION. Having described in the last chapter a tribe of minute, fierce, rapacious animals, I come now to a race of minute animals of a more harmless and gentle kind, that without being enemies to any are preyed upon by all. As Nature has fitted the former for hostility, so it has entirely formed the latter for evasion; and as the one kind subsist by their courage and activity, so the other find safety from their swiftness and their fears The hare is the swiftest animal in the world for the time it continues; and few quadrupeds can overtake even the rabbit when it has but a short way to run. To this class also we may add the squirrel, somewhat resembling the hare and rabbit in its form and nature, and equally pretty, inoffensive, and pleasing.

If we were methodically to distinguish animals of the hare kind from all others, we might say that they have but two cutting teeth above and two below, that they are covered with a soft downy fur, and that they have a bushy tail. The combination of these marks might perhaps distinguish them tolerably well, whether from the rat, the beaver, the otter, or any other most nearly approaching in form; but as I have declined all method that rather tends to embarrass history than enlighten it, I am contented to class these animals together for no precise reason, but because I find a general resemblance between them in their natural habits and in the shape of their heads and body. I call a squirrel an animal of the hare kind, because it is something like a hare. I call the paca of the same kind, merely because it is more like a rabbit than any other animal I know of. In short, it is fit to erect some particular standard in the imagination of the reader, to refer him to some animals that he knows in order to direct him in conceiving the figure of such as he does not know. Still, however, he should be apprised that his knowledge will be defective without an examination of each particular species, and that saying an animal is of this or that particular kind is but a very trifling part of its history.

Animals of the hare kind, like all others that feed entirely upon vegetables, are inoffensive and timorous. As Nature furnishes them with a most abundant supply, they have not that rapacity for food remarkable in such as are often stinted in their provision. They are extremely active and amazingly swift, to which they chiefly owe their protection; for being the prey of every voracious animal they are incessantly pursued. The hare, the rabbit, and the squirrel are placed by Pyerius in his Treatise of Ruminating Animals among the number of those that chew the cud; but how far this may be true I will not pretend to determine. Certain it is that their lips continually move whether sleeping or waking, Nevertheless, they chew their meat very much before they swallow it, and for that reason I should suppose that it does not want a second mastication. All these animals use their fore-paws like hands; they are remarkably salacious, and are furnished by Nature with more ample powers than most others for the business of propagation. They are so very prolific, that were they not thinned by the constant depredations made upon them by most other animals they would quickly over-run the earth.

THE HARE. Of all these the hare is the largest, the most persecuted, and the most timorous; all its muscles are formed for swiftness, and all its senses seem only given to direct its flight. It has very large prominent eyes, placed backwards in its head, so that it can almost see behind it as it runs. These are never wholly closed; but as the animal is continually upon the watch it sleeps with them open. The ears are still more remarkable for their size; they are moveable, and capable of being directed to every quarter; so that the smallest sounds are readily received, and the animal's motions directed accordingly. The muscles of the body are very strong and without fat, so that it may be said to carry no superfluous burden of flesh about it; the hinder legs are longer than the fore, which still adds to the rapidity of its motions; and almost all animals that are remarkable for their speed, except the horse, are formed in the same manner.

An animal so well formed for a life of escape might be supposed to enjoy a state of tolerable security; but as every rapacious creature is its enemy, it but very seldom lives out its natural term. Dogs of all kinds pursue it by instinct, and follow the hare more eagerly than any other animal. The cat and the weasel kinds are continually lying in ambush, and practising all their little arts to seize it; birds of prey are still more dangerous enemies, as against them no swiftness can avail nor

retreat secure; but man, an enemy far more powerful than all, perfers its flesh to that of other animals, and destroys greater numbers than all the rest. Thus pursued and persecuted on every side, the race would long since have been totally extirpated did it not find a resource in its amazing fertility.

The hare multiplies exceedingly; it is in a state of engendering at a few months old; the females go with young but thirty days, and generally bring forth three or four at a time. As soon as they have produced their young they are again ready for conception, and thus do not lose any time in continuing the breed. But they are in another respect fitted in an extraordinary manner for multiplying their kind; for the female, from the conformation of her womb, is often seen to bring forth and yet to continue pregnant at the same time; or, in other words, to have young ones of different ages in her womb together. Other animals never receive the male when pregnant, but bring forth their young at once. But it is frequently different with the hare-the female often, though already impregnated, admitting the male, and thus receiving a second impregnation. This extraordinary circumstance is, that the womb in these animals is divided in such a manner that it may be considered as a double organ, one side of which may be filled while the other remains empty. Thus these animals may be seen to couple at every period of their pregnancy, and even while they are bringing forth young laying the foundation of another brood.

The young of these animals are brought forth with their eyes open, and the dam suckles them for twenty days, after which they leave her and seek out for themselves. From this we observe that the education these animals receive is but trifling, and the family connection but of a short duration. In the rapacious kinds the dam leads her young forth for months together, teaches them the arts of rapine, and, although she wants milk to supply them, yet keeps them under her care until they are able to hunt for themselves. But a long connection of this kind would be very unnecessary as well as dangerous to the timid animals we are describing; their food is easily procured, and their associations, instead of protection, would only expose them to their pursuers. They seldom, however, separate far from each other, or from the place where they were produced, but make each a form at some distance, having 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 prefer such plants as are furnished with a milky juice. They also strip the bark of trees during the winter, there being scarce any that they will not feed on except the lime or the alder. They are particularly 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.

They sleep or repose in their forms by day, and may be said to live only by night. It is then that they go forth to feed and couple. They do not pair, however, but in the rutting season, which begins in February; the male pursues and discovers the female by the sagacity of its nose. They are then seen by moonlight playing, skipping, and pursuing each other; but the least motion, the slightest breeze, the falling of a leaf, is sufficient to disturb their revels; they instantly fly off, and each takes a separate way.

As their limbs are made for running they easily 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 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 the 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 also without any noise, as they have the sole of the foot furnished with hair; and they seem the only animals 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 said, however, that the females live longer than the males of this Mr. Buffon makes a doubt, but I am assured that it is so. They pass their lives in our climate in solitude and silence; and they seldom are heard to cry except when they are seized or wounded. Their voice is not so sharp as the note of some other animals, but more nearly approaching that of the squalling of a child. They are not so wild as their dispositions and their habits seem to indicate; but are of a complying nature, and easily susceptible of a kind of education. They are easily tamed: they even become fond and caressing, but they are incapable of attachment to any particular person, and never can be depended upon; for though taken never so young they regain their native freedom at the first opportunity. As they have a remarkable good ear, and sit upon their hind-legs and use their fore-paws as hands, they have been taught to beat the drum, to dance to music, and go through the manual exercise.

But their natural instincts for their preservation are much more extraordinary than those artificial tricks that are taught them. They make themselves a form, particularly in those places where the colour of the grass most resembles that of their skin; it is open to the south in winter and to the north in summer The hare, when it hears the hounds at a distance, flies for some time through a natural impulse, without managing its strength or consulting any other means but speed for its safety. Having attained some hill or rising ground, and left the dogs so far behind that it no longer bears their cries, it stops, rears on its hinder legs, and at length looks back to see if it has not lost its pursuers. But these, having once fallen upon the scent, pursue slowly and with united skill, and the poor animal soon again hears the fatal tidings of their approach. Sometimes when sore hunted it will start a fresh hare, and squat in the same form; sometimes it will creep under the door of a sheep-cot, and hide among the sheep; sometimes it will run among them, and no vigilance can drive it from the flock; some will enter holes like the rabbit, which the hunters call going to "vault;" some will go up one side of the hedge and come down the other; and it has been known that a hare hotly pressed has got upon the top of a cut quick-set hedge and run a good way thereon, by which it has effectually evaded the hounds. It is no unusual thing also for them to betake themselves to furze bushes, and to leap from one to another, by which the dogs are frequently misled. However, the first doubling a hare makes is generally a key to all its future attempts of that kind, the latter being exactly like the former. The young hares tread heavier, and leave a stronger scent than the old, because their limbs are weaker; and the more this forlorn creature tires the heavier it treads and the stronger is the scent it leaves. A buck or male hare is known by its choosing to run upon hard highways, feeding farther from the wood-sides, and making its doublings of a greater compass than the female. The male, having made a turn or two about its form, frequently leads the hounds five or six miles on a stretch; but the female keeps close by some covert side, turns, crosses, and winds among the bushes like a rabbit, and seldom runs directly forward. In general, however, both male and female regulate their conduct according to the weather. In a moist day they hold by the highways more than at any other time, because the scent is then strongest upon the grass. If they come to the side of a grove or spring they forbear to enter, but squat down by

the side thereof until the hounds have overshot them; and then, turning along their former path, make to their old form, from which they vainly hope for protection. Hares are divided by the hunters into mountain and measled hares. The former are more swift, vigorous, and have their flesh better tasted; the latter chiefly fre quent the marshes, when hunted keep among low grounds, and their flesh is moist, white, and flabby. When the male and female keep one particular spot, they will not suffer any strange hare to make its form in the same quarter, so that it is usually said that the more you hunt the more hares you shall have; for, having killed one, others come and take possession of its form. Many of these animals are found to live in woods and thickets; but they are naturally fonder of the open country, and are constrained only by fear to take shelter in places that afford them neither a warm sun nor an agreeable pasture. They are therefore usually seen stealing out of the edges of the wood to taste the grass that grows shorter and sweeter in the open fields than under the shade of the trees; however, they seldom enjoy this recreation without being pursued and every excursion is a new adventure. They are fired at by poachers traced by their footsteps in the snow-caught in springes-dogs, birds, and cats are all in combination against them-ants, snakes, and adders drive them from their forms, especially in summer even fleas, from which most other animals are free, persecute this poor creature; and so numerous are its enemies, that it is seldom permitted to reach even that short term to which it is limited by Nature.

The soil and climate have their influence upon this animal as well as on most others. In the countries bordering on the north pole they become white in the winter, and are often seen in troops of four or five hundred running along the banks of the river Irtish or the Jenisca, and are white as the snow they tread on. They are caught in traps for the sake of their skins, which on the spot are sold for less than seven shillings a hundred. Their fur is well known to form a considerable article in the hat manufacture; and we accordingly import great quantities from those countries where the hare abounds in such plenty. They are also found entirely black, but these in much less quantities than the former; and some have even been seen with horns, though these but rarely.

The hares of the hot countries, particularly in Italy, Spain, and Barbary, are smaller than ours; those bred in the Milanese country are said to be the best in Europe. There is scarce a country where this animal is not to be found, from the torrid zone to the neighbourhood of the polar circle. The natives of Guinea knock them on the head as they come down to the sides of the rivers to drink. They also surround the place where they are seen in numbers, and, clattering a short stick, which every man carries, against that which the person next him carries, they diminish their circle gradually till the hares are cooped up in the midst. They then altogether throw their sticks in among them, and with such deadly force, that they seldom fail of killing great numbers at a time.

The flesh of this animal has been esteemed as a delicacy among some nations, and is held in detestation by others. The Jews, the Ancient Britons, and the Mahometans, all considered it as an unclean animal, and religiously abstained from it. On the contrary, there are scarce any other people, however barbarous at present, that do not consider it as the most agreeable food. Fashion seems to preside and govern all the senses; what mankind at one time consider as beautiful, fragrant, or savoury, may at another time or among other nations be regarded as deformed, disgustful, or ill-tasted. That flesh which the Ancient Romans so much admired as to call it the food of the wise was among the Jews and the Druids thought unfit to be eaten; and even the moderns

-who, like the Romans, consider the flesh of this animal as a delicacy-have very different ideas as to dressing it. With us it is simply served up without much seasoning; but Apicius shows us the manner of dressing the hare in true Roman taste, with parsley, rice, vinegar, cumminseed, and coriander.

THE RABBIT. The hare and the rabbit, though so very nearly resembling each other in form and disposition, are yet distinct kinds, as they refuse to mix with each other. Mr. Buffon bred up several of both kinds in the same place; but from being at first indifferent they soon became enemies, and their combats were generally continued until one of them was disabled or destroyed. However, though these experiments were not attended with success, I am assured that nothing is more frequent than an animal bred betweeu these two, but which, like the mule, is marked with sterility. Nay, it has been actually known that the rabbit couples with animals of a much more distant nature; and there is at present in the Museum at Brussels a creature covered with feathers and hair, and said to be bred between a rabbit and a hen. The fecundity of the rabbit is still greater than that of the hare; and were we to calculate the produce from a single pair in one year the number would be amazing. They breed seven times in a year, and bring eight young ones each time. On a supposi tion, therefore, that this happens regularly, at the end of four years a couple of rabbits will see a progeny extending to nearly a million and a half. From hence we might justly apprehend being overstocked by their increase; but, happily for mankind, their enemies are numerous and their nature inoffensive-so that their destruction bears a near proportion to their fertility.

But although their numbers are diminished by every beast and bird of prey, and still more by man himself, yet there is no fear of their extirpation. The hare is a poor, defenceless animal, that has nothing but its swiftness to depend on for safety; its numbers are therefore every day decreasing; and in countries that are well peopled the species are so much kept under that laws are made for their preservation. Still, however, it is most likely that they will at last be totally destroyed and, like the wolf or the elk in some countries, be only kept in remembrance. But it is otherwise with the rabbit, its fecundity being greater and its means of safety more certain. The hare seems to have more various arts and instincts to escape its pursuers by doubling squatting, and winding; the rabbit has but one solitary mode of defence, but in that one finds safety-by making itself a hole, where it continues a great part of the day and breeds up its young; there it continues secure from the fox, the hound, the kite, and all other enemies.

Nevertheless, though this retreat be safe and convenient, the rabbit does not seem to be naturally fond of remaining there. It loves the sunny field and the open pasture; it seems to be a chilly animal, and dislikes the coldness of its underground habitation. It is therefore continually out when it does not fear pursuit; and the female often brings forth her young at a distance from the warren, in a hole not above a foot deep at the most. There she suckles them for about a month, covering them over with moss and grass whenever she goes to pasture, and scratching them up at her return. It has been said, indeed, that this shallow hole outside the warren is made lest the male should attack and destroy her young; but I have seen the male attend the young there himself, lead them out to feed, and conduct them back on the return of the dam. This external retreat seems a kind of country house at a distance from the general habitation; it is usually made near some spot of excellent pasture, or amidst a field of sprouting corn. To this both male and female often retire from the warren, lead their young by night to the food which lies so convenient, and, if not disturbed, continue