1825. English Spy, i. 156. I’ll thank you for a cut out of the back
of that lion tittered a man opposite with all the natural timidity
of the hare whom he thus particularised.
1828. Lytton, Pelham, p. 112 [ed. 1864]. ‘A lion is a hare, Sir.’
‘What!’ ‘Yes, Sir, it is a hare, but we call it a lion because of
the game laws.’
1872. Court Journal, 29 June. It was often impossible to get game
for the table, and at dinner it was usual to ask for lion, and lion
was entered in the bill of fare.