[I] In French _le lievre_; in Greek [Greek: lagôs]; in Latin _lepus_;
in Italian _lepre_; Spanish _liebre_; Portuguese _lebre_; German
_hase_; Swedish _hare_; Dutch _hase_; Polish _lajonz_.
The species of animals which are most numerous are not the most
useful. Nothing can be more noxious than the multitudes of rats, mice,
locusts, caterpillars, and many other insects, of which it would seem
that Nature rather admitted than ordained the extraordinary increase.
But those of the hare and rabbit are advantageous to us both from
the number and utility. Hares are abundantly spread over the face
of the earth; and rabbits, though originally natives of particular
climates, multiply so prodigiously in almost every place to which they
are transported, that instead of being extirpated, no small art is
required in order to diminish their too-often inconvenient number. When
we reflect on the astonishing fecundity of each particular species,
on the quick and prodigious multiplication of certain animals which
come into existence, as it were, to desolate the fields and ravage the
earth, we are astonished they do not oppress Nature with their numbers,
and after having devoured her productions become themselves victims to
the destruction they have made. We cannot view without terror those
thick clouds, those winged phalanxes of famished insects which seem to
menace the whole globe, and whether lighting on the fruitful plains
of Egypt, or of India, in an instant destroy the labours and hopes of
a whole people; and sparing neither grain, fruit, herbs, nor leaves,
strip the earth of its verdue, and change the richest countries into
barren desarts. We behold rats descending from the northern mountains,
in innumerable multitudes, rushing like a deluge of living matter,
overflow the plains, spread themselves over the southern provinces,
and after having destroyed in their passage every thing that lives, or
vegetates, finish their career with infecting the earth and air with
their putrid carcasses. We behold in the southern regions myriads of
ants issuing from the desarts, which, like an exhaustless torrent,
arrive in thick and successive columns, take possession of every spot,
drive away men and animals from their habitations, and never retire
till they have caused a general devastation. And in those times when
man himself was but half civilized, and subject to all the laws and
even excesses of Nature, were there not similar inundations of the
human species? Have there not been Normans, Huns, and Goths, whole
nations, or rather tribes of animals bearing the human form without
dwellings, and without distinction, who have suddenly rushed from their
caves, and marched in tumultuous herds, and without any force but what
consists in numbers, overthrown empires, destroyed nations, and having
ransacked the earth, concluded by repeopling it with a race not less
barbarous than themselves?
These æras, these great events, though so strongly marked in the
History of Mankind, are yet only slight vicissitudes in the ordinary
course of animated nature, which is in general always uniform and the
same; its movements are regulated by two unchangeable wheels; the
one, unbounded fecundity of every species; the other, the innumerable
causes of destruction which are perpetually reducing the produce of
that fecundity to a determinate measure, so as to preserve nearly the
same number of individuals in each species. And as these multitudinous
animals, which appear suddenly, disappear in the same manner, without
augmenting their race, so does the human species always remain the
same; the variations only are more slow, because the life of man being
longer than that of small animals, the alternate changes of increase
and diminution must necessarily require a greater portion of time.
But time itself is only an instant in the succession of ages, and
only strikes us the more forcibly, from having been accompanied with
horror and destruction; for, taking all the inhabitants of the globe
together, the number of the human race, like that of other animals,
will, at all times, appear to be nearly the same; as this depends
entirely upon an equilibrium of physical causes, an equilibrium to
which every thing has long been reduced, and which neither the efforts
of man, nor any moral circumstances whatever, can dissolve; those
circumstances themselves being dependant on physical causes. Whatever
care man may bestow on his own species, he will never be able to render
it more numerous in one place without destroying or diminishing it in
another[J]. As soon as any one country is overstocked with inhabitants
they diffuse themselves over other countries, or destroy each other,
and not unfrequently establish laws and customs calculated to prevent
an excess of multiplication. In climates of exuberant fertility, as
China, Egypt, and Guinea, they banish, mutilate, drown, or sell their
infants; in Catholic countries they condemn them to perpetual celibacy.
Those who actually exist find no difficulty in arrogating to themselves
the disposal of the rights of those who have no existence. Considering
themselves as necessary, they annihilate contingent beings, and scruple
not to suppress future generations for their own ease and convenience.
Mankind, without perceiving it, treat their own species exactly in the
same manner as they do other animals; they cherish and multiply, or
neglect and destroy them, according as it suits their purpose; and as
all moral effects depend upon physical causes, which ever since the
earth assumed its form, are fixed and permanent, it follows that in
the human, as well as in the other animal species, the number must
likewise be uniform and unalterable. It is to be observed that this
fixed state, this permanent number, are not to be considered in an
absolute sense; all physical and moral causes, and all the effects
which flow from them, are comprised and balanced within certain
limits, more or less extended, but never so large as to destroy the
equilibrium. As the whole universe is in a state of perpetual motion,
and as all the forces of matter act against and counter-balance each
other, so every thing is brought about in a kind of oscillation, to
the middle points of which we refer the ordinary course of Nature, and
whose extremes are the furthest removed from that course. In effect,
therefore, we find that an excess of fecundity, either in animals or
vegetables, is the usual fore-runner of sterility. Plenty and scarcity
present themselves so alternately, and often follow so close upon
each other, that a tolerable judgment may be formed of the product of
one year by that of the preceding. The apple, plum, oak, beech, and
indeed most fruit and forest trees, do not bear plentifully two years
together. So likewise it is with caterpillars, May-bugs, flies, field
mice, and many other animals, who if they multiply to excess one year,
they will produce but a very small number the next. What, indeed, would
become of all the fruits of the earth, of the most useful animals,
or even of man himself, if these insects were to be proportionally
increased after a fertile season? But no; the causes of destruction
and sterility immediately follow those of an excessive multiplication.
Independent of contagion, a necessary consequence of too great a mass
of living matter assembled in one place, there are in every species,
certain causes of death, as we shall hereafter have occasion to
mention, and which are sufficient to counter-balance any preceding
excess of fecundity. I must again observe that this is not to be taken
in an absolute or strict sense, especially with respect to those
species which do not remain entirely in a state of nature. Those which
man takes care to rear are more abundant than they otherwise would be;
but as his attention has its limits, so the increase which flows from
it has long since been confined by unalterable bounds; and though in
civilized countries, the human species and domestic animals, are more
numerous than in other climates, they are never so to excess; because
the very power which calls them into existence, destroys them when they
become troublesome.
[J] We were at first inclined to combat this position of our learned
author, with those reasons, founded upon facts, which may be adduced
against it; but he has himself so completely replied to it at the end
of his dissertation upon wild animals, page 26 of this volume, that any
thing further than repeating his own observation must be unnecessary;
for he there says, that, "in _process of time, we may reasonably
suppose the surface of the earth will be equally inhabited_," which is
surely impossible without considerable increase.
In those districts which are reserved for the chace, four or five
hundred hares are sometimes killed in the course of one day's sport.
These animals multiply amazingly; they engender at all seasons, and
are in a condition to propagate before the first year of their life is
expired. The females do not go with young above thirty or thirty-one
days; they produce three or four, and are immediately after ready
to receive the male; they likewise receive him during the time of
gestation, and by a particular formation of their organs are often
found to have a super-foetation; for the vagina and the matrix are
continuous, and the latter has neither neck or orifice in the womb, as
in other animals; yet each horn has an orifice which opens into the
vagina and dilates during the time of bringing forth; and which forming
two distinct uteri, act independently of each other; so that the
females of this species are capable of conceiving and bringing forth by
each matrix at different times; and consequently super-foetation must
be as common among these animals, as it is rare among those which have
not this double organ. It is plain, therefore, that the females may be
impregnated at all times. By another singularity in their conformation
they are found to be as lascivious as they are fruitful; the gland of
the clitoris is prominent and almost as large as the sexual distinction
of the male; and as the vulva is hardly visible, and the males when
young have no exterior marks, it is often difficult to distinguish the
sexes. It is these circumstances which have given rise to the opinions
that there are many hermaphrodites among these animals, that the males
sometimes bring forth, and that some are alternately males and females,
and perform the office of either sex; because the females being more
lascivious than the males will get upon them, and because they so much
resemble each other externally, that unless very closely examined one
sex may be mistaken for the other.
The young ones have their eyes open when brought forth; the mother
suckles them about twenty days, after which they separate and provide
for themselves; they do not wander far from each other, nor from the
place of their birth; yet they live in solitude, each composing itself
a form at the distance of sixty or eighty paces; thus when we find a
leveret in any place, we are almost certain of finding one or two more
in the neighbourhood. They feed more by night than day; and chiefly
upon herbs, leaves, fruits, and grain, but above all they prefer those
plants which yield a milky juice; they even eat the bark of trees in
winter, except that of the alder and lime, neither of which they ever
touch. When reared at home they are fed with lettuces and other herbs;
but the flesh of these domestic fed hares has always a bad taste.
They sleep and repose themselves in their forms during the day, and
only live, as it were, in the night, when they range about, feed, and
copulate; they may be seen by moonlight playing, leaping, and pursuing
each other, but the smallest noise, even the rustling of a falling
leaf is sufficient to alarm them; they fly, and in their flight take
different ways.
Some authors have asserted that hares chew the cud; but I cannot
believe this opinion to be well founded, as they have but one stomach,
and the conformation of that, as well as the other intestines is
altogether different in ruminating animals. The coecum of the latter is
small, while those of hares are extremely large; and if we add to the
capacity of the stomach this large coecum, we shall easily conceive,
that being capable of receiving a great quantity of food, this animal
may live upon herbage alone, like the horse and the ass, which have
also a large coecum and but one stomach, and consequently cannot
ruminate.
Hares sleep much, but always with their eyes open. They have neither
eye-lids, nor cilia, and seem to have bad eyes; but as if for a
recompence of that defect, their hearing is exceedingly acute, and
their ears are very large in proportion to the size of their bodies.
They move these long ears with great facility, and use them as an helm
to direct their course, which is so rapid that they easily outstrip all
other animals. Their fore legs being much shorter than their hind ones
they can more easily mount than descend, for which reason when pursued
they always make towards the rising grounds. Their running is a kind
of leaping gallop, and they proceed without making the smallest noise,
as their feet, even underneath, are covered with hair, and perhaps
they are the only animals which have hair growing within side of their
mouths. The hare does not live above seven or eight years; he completes
his growth in one, and the duration of its life is proportioned to
this period, for he lives to about seven times that space. Some indeed
assert that the males live longer than the females, but that I much
doubt. They pass their lives in solitude and silence, and never exert
their voices but when seized or wounded; their cry is sharp and strong,
and not unlike the human voice. They are not so savage as by their
habits and manners might be supposed; they are gentle, and susceptible
of a species of improvement. They are easily tamed, but never acquire
that degree of attachment which is requisite to render them domestic,
for those which are taken very young, and brought up in a house, will
take the first opportunity to escape and fly into the country. As they
have a good ear, as they sit of their own accord upon their hind legs,
and use the fore legs like arms, some have been so tutored as to beat a
drum, to perform gestures in cadence, &c.
In general the hare possesses sufficient instinct for its preservation,
and sagacity to escape its enemies. It prepares itself a form, or nest;
in winter he chuses a spot exposed to the south, and in summer one to
the north. To conceal himself from view he hides among hillocks of
the same colour with his own hair. "I have seen," says du Fouilloux,
"a hare so cunning, that upon hearing the huntsman's horn he started
from his form, and though at the distance of a quarter of a league,
hasted to a pond, and there hid himself among the rushes in the middle
of it, and thus escaped the pursuit of the dogs. I have seen a hare,
which after running more than two hours before the dogs, has dislodged
another, and took possession of his form. I have seen others, swim over
two or three ponds, of which the smallest was not less than eighty
paces broad. I have seen others, after a chace of two hours, enter
a sheep cot, and remain among the cattle. I have seen others, when
closely pursued, take refuge among a flock of sheep, from which they
would not be separated. I have seen others, upon hearing the noise of
the hounds, conceal themselves in the earth. I have seen others, which
have gone along one side of the hedge, and returned by the other, so
that there was only the thickness of the hedge between them and the
dogs; and I have seen others, after a chace of half an hour, mount an
old wall six feet high, and take refuge in a hole covered with ivy."
But these facts are doubtless the greatest efforts of their instinct,
for their common resources are less refined and intricate. They, in
general, when pursued, content themselves with running rapidly, and
afterwards tracing and retracing their own steps. They never direct
their course against the wind, but always run with it. The females
do not run so far out as the males, but they double more frequently.
Hares, in general, if hunted upon their native spot, do not remove
a great way from it, but return to their form, and if chaced for two
successive days, they make exactly the same doublings on the second as
they did on the first. If a hare runs straight forward, and to a great
distance, it is a proof of his being a stranger to that spot, and that
he was only there by accident. This generally happens during their most
particular times of rutting, which are in January, February, and March,
when the male hares finding but few females in their own districts,
will roam for several leagues in search of them; but immediately upon
being roused by the dogs, they make towards their native abodes,
and never return again. The females do not thus go abroad; they are
larger than the males, but have less strength and agility, and are
more timid, for they never allow the dogs to come so near their forms
as the males, and make use of more doublings and artifice. They are
also more delicate, and more susceptible of the impressions of the
air; they dread the water, and even avoid the dews; whereas among the
males there is a kind which are fond of water, and are chaced in marshy
and watery grounds, but the flesh of this sort has a very bad taste;
and, in general, the flesh of all those which inhabit low valleys is
whitish and insipid, while those in elevated countries, where the wild
thyme, and other fine herbs abound, are delicious to the palate. It has
also been remarked, that those which live in the centre of the woods,
even in the same countries, are not so good as those that inhabit the
borders, or live among the cultivated fields and vineyards; and that
the flesh of the female is always more delicate than that of the male.
The nature of the soil has a great influence on hares, as well as on
all other animals. The hares of the mountains are larger and fatter
than those of the plains, and are also of a different colour, the
former being browner, and having more white under the neck than the
latter which are inclined to red. On high mountains, and in northern
countries, they become white in winter, and recover their ordinary
colour in the summer; there are but a few, and those perhaps very old
ones, that continue always white, for all of them change more or less
white as they advance in years.
The hares of Italy, Spain, Barbary, and other warm climates, are
smaller than those of France and more northern nations; and according
to Aristotle they were of a less size in Egypt than in Greece. They
are exceedingly plentiful in Sweden, Poland, France, England, Germany,
Barbary, Egypt, the Islands of the Archipelago, particularly Delos,
which was formerly called Lagia, from the number of hares found in it.
They are also plenty in Lapland, where they continue white for the
whole ten months of the winter, and resume their yellow colour during
the two months of the summer only. It appears then that all climates
are nearly equal to them. However it is observed that they are less
numerous in the eastern countries than in Europe; that there are
scarcely any in South America, though they are numerous in Virginia,
Canada, and even in the land that borders on Hudson's Bay, and in
the Straits of Magellan. But these North American hares are perhaps
of a different species from ours, for travellers tell us, that they
are not only larger but that their flesh is white, and has a very
different taste to that of the European hares. They add, that in North
America these animals never shed their hair, and that their skins make
excellent furs. In countries of excessive heat, as Senegal, Gambia, and
particularly in the districts of Fida, Apam, and Acra, and in other
countries situated under the torrid zone in Africa, and America, as
New Holland, and the isthmus of Panama, there are also animals which
travellers have taken for hares, but which seem rather to be a species
of rabbit, which comes originally from the hot countries, and is never
found very far to the north; whereas the hare is always fatter in
proportion to the coldness of the country which he inhabits.
The flesh of this animal, though so much esteemed at the tables of
Europeans, is not at all relished by the eastern nations. It is true
that the flesh of the hare, as well as that of the hog, was forbidden
as food by the law of Mahomet and the ancient Jewish law; but the
Greeks and Romans held it in as great estimation as we do, "Inter
quadrupedes gloria prima lepus," says Martial. In fact, both the flesh
and the blood of this animal is excellent; but the fat adds nothing to
the delicacy of the flesh; for the hare, when at its liberty in the
open country, never grows fat; whereas he often dies with the excess of
it when reared in a house.
The chace of the hare is an amusement, nay often the principal
occupation of people in the country. As it requires but little
apparatus and expence, and is even useful, it is an amusement
universally agreeable. The hunter in the mornings and evenings watches
at the corner of some wood for the hares going out or returning; and
in the day he seeks to dislodge them from their form. When the air is
fresh and the sun shines bright, a hare, which has been chaced, may be
discovered on its form by the fumes which arise from its body; and I
have seen some so expert in this observation that they have gone half
a league to kill a hare on its seat. This animal will suffer itself to
be very nearly approached, especially if the advance is made with a
seeming inattention and obliquity. They are more afraid of dogs than
men, and upon either smelling or hearing the former will immediately
take to flight; though they run swifter than the dogs, yet as they
do not take a direct course, but turn and double round the spot from
whence they were started, the greyhound, who rather hunts by sight than
smell, generally intercepts, seizes, and destroys them. They remain in
the fields during the summer, in autumn among the vines, and in winter
among the bushes or in the woods, and in all seasons they may be forced
to the chace with proper hounds. They may be also taken by birds of
prey. Owls, buzzards, eagles, foxes, wolves, and men, make continual
war upon them. These animals have so many enemies, that they escape
them only by chance, and are seldom allowed to enjoy that short life
which Nature has allotted to them.