THE HARE AND THE RABBIT. FEW animals are better known than the hare and the 1abbit, which, though closely allied to each other, and belonging to the Rodent order of quadrupeds, exhibit very different instincts and opposite modes of life. Both, in their natural state, are regarded as private property, at least in our island, and are protected from the unlicensed by the same laws as are the pheasant, partridge, and grouse. The hare (Lepus timidus) was one of the "beastis of venerye" among our chaseNo. 614. loving forefathers, and indeed it appears ever to have been regarded as "game," and hunted for the sake of the sport its pursuit affords. The earliest notice of hare-hunting is by Xenophon, in his 'Cynegeticus;' he there enters with evident feelings of pleasure into the details of the sport, and gives many observations on the animal's habits, with which he was clearly well acquainted. The Romans, like ourselves, considered the flesh of the hare a delicacy. It would seem, however, that the ancient Britons abstained from it on religious VOL. X.-3 H grounds, and we know that it was one of the forbidden meats among the Jews, and also among the Mohammedans. Timid and defenceless, and surrounded by numerous enemies, exclusive of man, the hare is well endowed with the means of escape. It is both watchful and swift, and its brown fur assimilates in colour with the herbage amongst which it makes its "form." The external characters of the hare are too well known to need any details: its senses of hearing and sight are very acute; its eyes are large and prominent; its ears very long; its hind limbs elongated, muscular, and formed for speed; its fur consists of hair of two kinds, one straight and of a yellow-brown colour, the other long, wavy, and tipped with black, giving a peculiar motiled appearance. The ears are tipped with black. take food and exercise in the garden, returning always to the house. A greyhound and a spaniel were its companions, and the whole three played together, and at night often stretched together on the hearth. It is remarkable, however, that both the greyhound and spaniel were used in the field, and often went out secretly in pursuit of hares by themselves, though they never attempted to injure their playfellow and companion. Sonnini had a tame hare which lived with a hound and two Angora cats; and Dr. Townson had one as playful and familiar as a kitten. A person of our acquaintance had at different times two tame hares, both remarkable for their docility, but of very different tempers; one was very gentle, the other would resent any molestation by biting, which it did very severely, at the same time pertinaciously following up its attack. Cowper's male hare, when annoyed by the cat, would drum upon her back so violently with his fore paws as to compel her to escape and hide herself. The hare breeds when about a year old, and produces three broods in the course of the spring and summer; but the males and females do not pair nor form permanent associations. The female, after about thirty days' gestation, brings forth from three to five young. These are born covered with fur and with the eyes open, and in less than a month leave their parent and trust to themselves. Leverets, as the young are termed, are peculiarly liable to destruction, and one of their most dangerous foes is the weasel, at the sight of which the helpless creatures seem paralysed with fear. Many instances have occurred in which the weasel has been killed in the act of draining the life-blood from the neck of his victim. The wiles and doubles of the hare, when chased by dogs, are so well known and so often noticed, that we need not here detail them; the more especially as we cannot help connecting them with the fear and agony it experiences while straining every nerve, and using every artifice to escape its pur The hare is crepuscular and nocturnal in its habits. During the day it crouches in its "form," or habitual resting-place, which is sometimes a spot selected among fern and other herbage, sometimes among the underwood of a "preserve," and sometimes on the ground without other covering or concealment than is given by the unevenness and rough condition of the site. From this "form," a regular track is made by the animal to its adjacent feeding-grounds, for it goes and returns upon its own footsteps. Where hares are plentiful, their tracks leading from preserves to their usual evening haunts are so numerous and definite as to strike the eyes of the most unobservant, and the poacher is at once directed where to place his net or noose. It need not be said that the food of this animal consists exclusively of herbage. Young wheat often suffers extensively from the ravages of hares where numerous; indeed we have known fields of this grain, adjacent to extensive wooded preserves, totally ruined for the season by their nocturnal depredations. Plantations of young trees also are often greatly injured by their habit of gnawing the bark; and the farmer's garden, especially during hard winters, when food issuers. scarce, is very liable to their invasion. At this part of the year hares scatter themselves abroad, and wander farther than during the summer; we have observed, besides, that they are then more diurnal, seeking their food even during the middle of the day; and we have surprised them busy among the culinary vegetables of the garden. The hare is very playful. Often during a fine moonlight evening, have we, unobserved, been amused and delighted by watching a numerous assemblage of them gambolling and sporting with each other, in the exuberance of animal enjoyment. The least noise was sufficient to check them and render them still and attentive; our appearance would put them to instantaneous flight. It has been noticed by several writers that the hare takes fearlessly to the water, and will swim well. Instances are recorded of its having resorted to the expedient of swimming across a pool to the shelter of rushes when the hunters' horn had alarmed it; and Mr. Yarrell (in Loudon's Magazine,' vol. v.) relates a circumstance, quoted by Mr. Bell, of a hare which came down from the hills to the sea-shore early in the morning, took the water at high tide, and swam to the nearest point of an island a mile distant from the mainland. We have ourselves known them to cross a broad stream, though we have not seen them in the act of swimming. Wild and timid as this animal is, it is not unsusceptible of domestication. The poet Cowper, as is well known, kept tame hares. Borlase informs us (Nat. Hist. of Cornwall") that a tame hare in his possession was so familiar as to feed from the hand; its ordinary retreat was under a chair in the parlour, but it would The fur of this animal is valuable, and the market is supplied not only with skins collected in our island, but with others imported in abundance from the Continent. The hare is found in our island and throughout Europe, as well as in many parts of Asia. Mr. M Clelland states that it occurs in Assam, but of degenerate size, measuring only from seventeen to nineteen inches in length (instead of twenty-one inches). "It is not esteemed as an article of food; the ears are more uniformly grey than in the European variety” (Proc. Zool. Soc., 1839, p. 152). We suspect the Assain hare here noticed to be a distinct species. We may here remark that the common hare of Ireland, indeed the only hare found there, is specifically different from the English species, Lepus timidus, and it is remarkable that its distinctness was not recognised till the year 1833. "In the year 1833 the Earl of Derby, then Lord Stanley, and president of the Linnean Society, sent to that Society a specimen of the hare of Ireland, which his Lordship had obtained at Liverpool." This specimen was described by Mr. Yarrell, who subsequently had opportunities of examining others. In the Proc. Zool. Soc.,' July, 1833, p, 88, the following passage occurs: -"A specimen was exhibited of the Irish hare recently presented to the Society by Mr. Yarrell, who pointed out the characters by which it is distinguished from the common hare of England and the Continent of Europe. Its head is shorter and more rounded; its ears still shorter than its head; and its imbs less lengthened. The fur also differs essentially from that of the common hare, and is useless as an article of trade." This species (Lepus Hibernicus, Bell; in British Quadrupeds) is somewhat larger than our English hare, with a very short head and very short cars; a uniform soft fur, and comparatively short hind limbs, which do not much exceed the fore limbs in length. That it is a distinct species no one can doubt who has compared it with its English relative, as we ourselves have done repeatedly. There is yet another very distinet species within the limits of our Islands; we allude to the Alpine or varying hare (Lepus variabilis). This species is common in the mountain districts of Sweden, Norway, Lapland, and Kamtchatka. It is found in the Alps, and it occurs in the northern parts of Scotland, and is sometimes seen on the mountains of Cumberland. The Alpine hare is intermediate in size between the rabbit and the English hare. In Sutherlandshire and other parts of the Scottish highlands it tenants the summits of the mountains, hiding in the clefts of rocks or among rocky fragments. During the winter lichen is its staple food. At this season it descends to a lower and less exposed station; and its fur, gradually losing the light fulvous-grey of summer, becomes of a snowy white, the tips of its ears (which are shorter than the head) remaining black. Thus, then, we have three distinct species of hare within the limits of the British Islands, namely, the common hare, the Irish hare, and the Alpine hare,-of which, as respects external characters, the two latter more nearly resemble each other than they do the former. From the hare let us turn to its ally the rabbit (Lepus Cuniculus, Linn.). Size excepted, the rabbit closely resembles the hare in all its principal characters. It may, however, be at once distinguished by the comparative shortness of the head and cars, as well as of the hinder limbs; the absence of a black tip to the ears; and by the brown colour of the upper surface of the tail. Its habits and general economy are totally opposite to those of the hare; and its flesh, instead of being dark and highly flavoured, is white, and, though delicate, somewhat insipid, especially that of the tame breed. The flesh of the latter is indeed preferred by some, but we agree with M. Ude in thinking it very inferior. It would appear that the rabbit is not an aboriginal of our Island, but the date of its introduction is unknown. In the year 1309, at the installation feast of the Abbot of St. Austin's, six hundred of these animals were provided, at the then great cost of 157.; the price of each, sixpence, being that of a pig. It is generally believed that the rabbit was first introduced into Spain from Africa by the Romans, whence it gradually spread, naturalising itself in temperate climates. This animal is eminently gregarious; and, as is well known, makes extensive burrows, in which it habitually dwells and rears its young. Sandy soils, with a superficial layer of fine vegetable mould clothed with thyme, fine grass, and other herbage, which at the same time afford food and are easily mined, are favourable spots for the increase of the rabbit. They delight in steep sandbanks overhung with brushwood and furze; and we have remarked that when the old red sandstone crops out and is rendered friable, or somewhat decomposed by the action of the atmospheric elements, rabbits are very numerous, burrowing with great facility. They abound also in woods, especially such as clothe the declivities of hills, whence, like the hare, they make incursions into the adjacent corn-lands. A rabbit-warren, that is, a wide sandy heath, or extensive common, devoted to their increase and feeding, when visited at the close of day or by moonlight, affords an amusing spectacle. Hundreds may be seen of all sizes, gambolling and sporting, and chasing each other with astonishing rapidity. When alarmed, they take to their burrows, disappearing as if by magic. The fecundity of the rabbit is very great. The female is capable of breeding at six months old; and four or five litters, each litter consisting of about five young, are annually produced. We have stated that tlie have produces her young clothed, capable of seeing, and soon in a condition to shift for themselves. With the rabbit circumstances are widely different. The young are born blind and naked, and totally helpless. The female forms a separate burrow, at the bottom of which she makes a nest of dried grass, lining it with fur taken from her own body. In this nest she deposits her young, carefully covering them over every time she leaves them. It is not until the tenth or twelfth day that the young are able to see; nor do they leave the burrow till four or five weeks old. The precaution of forming a separate burrow, the entrance of which is concealed, has induced the belief that the male parent will destroy the young, should he chance to discover them. This, however, is not probable. We know indeed that the female domestic rabbit will often devour her offspring, if molested at an early period, urged by the instinctive solicitude for their welfare taking a morbid and unnatural direction; and we believe that. the domestic male is apt to destroy them-but from facts like these we can form no safe deductions as to the propensities of the animals in a state of nature. Wild rabbits, for example, pair-a male and female uniting together; but in a state of domestication this instinct is lost. The rapid multiplication of the rabbit would soon render it, as Mr. Bell observes, one of the greatest scourges of our agriculture, were its destruction not effected by wholesale. It is the prey of the weasel, the stoat, the polecat, the hawk, and the owl; and man, though he protects it, thins its numbers, both for the sake of its flesh and fur. With respect to the latter, the home supply is by no means adequate to the demand, and, as is the case with the skins of the hare, thousands are annually imported from Germany and other parts of the Continent, where myriads of rabbits are bred for this purpose. In some notes on the Mammalia of Ireland,' by W. Thompson, Esq., vice-president of the Nat. Hist. Soc. Belfast (Proc. Zool. Soc.,' 1837, p. 52), it is stated that "persons who take rabbits in the north of Ireland distinguish two kinds; the one they call the burrowrabbit, the other the bush-rabbit. The meaning of the former term is obvious; but of the latter it may be stated that the animal is so designated in consequence of having a form like the hare, which is generally placed in bushes or underwood." Something like this we have ourselves observed, though we believe there are not two species. We have in certain parts of England known rabbits solitary (instead of gregarious), and thinly scattered about the steeps of rocky moorlands, crouching under bushics, or among fragments of rock, and having no burrow, which, indeed, in the deep peat would be difficult of excavation, as this is oozy and boggy. In adjacent spots, where the ground perinitted it, their burrows were numerous. Though the rabbit is not capable of the exertion of the hare, it is nevertheless very swift for a short distance; and, as we know by experience, when crossing a path in the woods at full speed is not easily hit by the sportsman. From this circumstance rabbit-shooting is with some a favourite sport, as it serves to display their skill. The usual way of taking rabbits for sale is by ferrets and nets, or by traps of various construction. The wild rabbit is undoubtedly the origin of our various domestic breeds. Tame rabbits indeed easily resume their natural state of freedom, and return to their instinctive habits. Albinoes are common in a state of domestication, and it often happens that one or | two appear in a litter when neither of the parents are 80. Domestic rabbits are not unfrequently fierce: we | in reality an island, it commonly goes by the name of had a male of the Angora breed, which would fearlessly the Salt Holmes, or the Salt Marshes; and except that attack any cat, and always come off victorious. We it serves to impede the navigation of this part of the once saw it lacerate a large cat in a cruel manner with river, it is a place of little or no importance. its sharp incisors. The wild rabbit is about sixteen inches in the length of the head and body, but some of our domestic breeds nearly equal a hare in magnitude. Our sketch represents two hares and a leveret in the foreground, and a group of rabbits beyond. THE ISLANDS OF ENGLAND [Concluded from page 416.] CANVEY ISLAND, FOULNESS ISLAND, MERSEY ISLAND, PROCEEDING to the northward of the river Thames, COQUET ISLE. This is a small island lying a couple of miles east of the mouth of the Coquet river, off the coast of Northumberland. In its greatest extent it is scarcely over half a mile; but it is surrounded by deep water, and some parts of it are elevated to a considerable height above the sea. There are, however, dangerous clusters of rocks, both on the north and south of the mouth of the Coquet river, and hence vessels navigating this part of the coast rarely attempt to find a passage between the mainland and the island; but a lighthouse has been recently erected for the safety of mariners. Near the village of Warkworth, at a short distance from the mouth of the river, is Warkworth hermitage, consisting of three separate rooms cut out of the solid rock, a work of immense labour for the hands of a Canvey Island is situated on the north side of the solitary recluse. This romantic place is visited by numeThames, midway between Gravesend and Southend; rous strangers, from whence an excursion is commonly and although five miles long and two miles broad, be- made to Coquet Isle, where there still are the remains ing merely separated from the mainland, which like of some ancient walls of a building supposed to have itself is low and marshy, by a creek, few persons navi-been in some way connected with the original occupier gating the river Thames are aware of this being an of the lonely hermitage. island, as it presents no such appearance from the main channel of that river it, like marsh land in general, is mostly devoted to pasturage. There are several low and swampy islands where the river Crouch disembogues into the sea, the principal of which are Foulness and Wallasea, the former of which is five miles long and from two to three wide, contains a church, and is divided into two parishes. The creeks and pits connected with the river Crouch, and also the river Blackwater, which forms an estuary that runs as far inland as Malden, yield considerable quantities of oysters. the rivers Blackwater and Coln. It contains two THE FARNE ISLANDS, WITH HOLY ISLAND, or These islands have already been described in the Penny Magazine; the former in No. 586 of the new series, and Landisfarn at page 282 of vol. vi. They, like Coquet Island, lie off the coast of Northumberland, in the North Sea; and, like most of that coast, are of a rugged and rocky character; and the Farne Islands in particular, from their distance from the shore, and the dangerous rocks in their vicinity, render the navigation of this portion of the coast both difficult and perilous. notice of Holy Island; we commenced with the Isle of The circuit of England is complete with this brief Man, situated in the Irish Sea, and opposite to the southern part of the west coast of Cumberland; and having traced our progress southward, and then eastward, and lastly northward, have, on reaching Holy Island, done all that we proposed at the outset, that for although there are clusters of rocks among the few miles of English coast northward of Holy Island, they are but mere rocks, and hence do not properly come under the denomination of islands; nor have we omitted, we believe, any name of importance, but have included all that from size or otherwise appeared worthy of attention. Mersey Island is nearly as large as Foulness, and is situated ten miles south of Colchester, and between villages, East and West Mersey, whose inhabitants are principally engaged in the oyster fishery. There are two or three smaller islands farther up the estuary of the Blackwater, the largest of which are Northey and Osey. The oysters brought to the London market from the various creeks and banks in the neighbour-is, given a short sketch of all the Islands of England; hood are sold under the name of Colchester oysters. Horsey Island is situated in a small gulf or inlet, about seven miles south of Harwich. Its situation from the sea may be known by the Walton tower or Naze lighthouse, which stands on the shore of the mainland, two miles east of Horsey Island. There are some other small islands in the same inlet, separated from each other by narrow shallow channels. It may here be observed, that it is entirely owing to the low situation of the south-eastern portion of Essex, and the want of a greater fall in the waters of the various sluggish streams and rivers, that we find so many islands formed in the vicinity of their mouths or communications with the sea; and here, as is usually the case on the coast of low lands of this description, sand and mud banks extend to a distance from the shore, which render the navigation both difficult and dan gerous. Valley of Cashmere.-How different was the aspect of a rillage viewed from a distance, and when I entered it. The noble groups of palms, poplars, and fruit-trees; the curious mosque, with and tagetes were in full bloom, notwithstanding the lateness of its quaint alleys and flower-garden, where the chrysanthemum the autumn; the whole scene surrounded with verdant meadows, through which ran a brook with its water-mill, and rows of willows planted along its banks;-such objects as these would lend to the villages a friendly and hospitable look. But in place of this lovely exterior, how mournful a spectacle would frequently meet my eye as I rode into the place. Then all was life; now all death: the mill-wheel stood still, many of the houses were ruinous, while others, with doors and windows open, offered a refuge only to the wild beast. In many a hamlet there was not a mortal the entrance of a mosque, or a Brahmin wasted to a skeleton, conto be found, with the exception of an old fed-up Fakir, squatted at ning prayers out of his Veda. The first would rise, screech out Allaho-Ackbar, and importune for alms, while the other continued to bear his far greater misery with uncomplaining resignation.-Hugel's Travels in Cashmere from Foreign Quarterly From the Essex coast northward there is no detached land met with that deserves the appellation of island, until arriving at the mouth of the river Tees, which separates Yorkshire from the county of Durham; and even then the only low plot of barren ground within the mouth of that river, between the villages of Salt Holme and Seaton Snook, and at high water separated from the north or Durham side of the river by a channel of several hundred yards in breadth; and although | Review. VALENTINE GREATRAKES. THE desire to escape from pain has led mankind, in all ages, to adopt, without sufficient investigation, any means which promised to effect a cure, or to give relief in the most certain and speedy manner. From sacrifices to pagan gods, to gifts to witches, no absurdity has been too great to be adopted; but as the knowledge attendant upon civilization extends, credulity must be acted upon by means less rude, and more in accordance with the position and ideas of society. While in England the shrines of saints are altogether abandoned, in some parts of the Continent their beneficial powers are still confided in, and many well-attested cases are continually published of diseases cured by visiting such places, as is asserted; of such cases there is never any want, whatever be the means proposed for securing a restoration to health, from the affidavits of the common quack, to the exhibitions of the scientific believers in the wonders of animal magnetism. In all cases alike, however, the effects which it is acknowledged are actually produced, are no doubt the results of a powerful action of the imagination, sometimes assisted by accidental circumstances. Among the disorders particularly subject to the influence of a charm, the most common in England were the king's evil and the ague. Every old woman had a charm for the ague, and in rural districts there are some yet existing; but the more serious evil was only to be remedied by the hand of the sovereign, and hence its name. This power was exercised with much ceremony, a special prayer being provided for it in the Liturgy, till the extinction of the Stuart family. Dr. Johnson, when a child, was touched for that disorder by Queen Anne; and Charles Edward, though only pretending to be Prince of Wales, exercised the power effectually at Holyrood House, in October, 1745. That in many cases persons recovered their health after this process, is not contested, but not so as to the power by which they were effected: at an earlier period it was attributed to the high sanctity vested in the kingly office; by others, to a direct miraculous interference of the Deity; by others, with ourselves, to the influence of the imagination; and recently it has been connected with the phenomena of animal magnetism, and this connection is certainly established to a large extent by the cures recorded to have been performed by Valentine Greatrakes, who assumed to have become possessed of the power of touching, which had hitherto been the prerogative of the sovereign alone. From his own statement, Valentine Greatrakes (or Gratrax) was a native of Ireland, being born in 1628, at Affane, in the county of Waterford. Having received a decent education at home, he was sent, when about the age of thirteen, to the university of Dublin. Here he remained but a very short time, as the death of his father, and the breaking out of the Irish rebellion in 1641, forced his mother, with the rest of the family, to seek refuge in England. Young Greatrakes continued to live with the family in Cheshire for about six years, when he resolved to return to Ireland, "to recover," as he says himself, in a work to which we shall have occasion to refer more fully hereafter, "the fallen fortunes of my house." He found affairs in such confusion, that he retired to the castle of Capoquin, and "spent a year's time in contemplation..... My soul was as weary of this habitation of clay as ever the galley-slave was of the oar." This love of solitude never entirely left him, and appears to have laid *Greatrakes is cited as an important instance of the possession and use of animal magnetism, in the second volume of the History of Animal Maguetism,' by M. Deleuze |