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NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HARE

reproduces young two or three times in a season, generally dropping a single young one, but often two and sometimes three. Young doe hares which enter the world in March seem to reproduce young in the following July or August. Those which are born in late autumn give birth to young ones only in the following year; at least, such is my belief, but it is difficult to lay down any hard-and-fast rules as to the gestation of wild animals. The subject is exceedingly obscure and has not been fully ventilated. Even if wild animals reproduce their own kind in confinement (which they often persistently fail to do), it would still be doubtful if the gestation of the females kept under artificial conditions could be relied upon to correspond in all particulars with the similar period passed in a state of absolute freedom. Bell says that in mild winters young hares have been found in January. A few leverets are undoubtedly dropped in February, especially after those open winters which encourage the old ones to couple early. Some people consider it unusual to find leverets in March. Mr. Algernon E. Perkins recorded in the Field a nest of five young leverets which his keeper found in Norfolk on April 25. Mr. Richard Rice wrote from Berkshire, to say that he saw a dead leveret in a sheep pen on March 8. It had been killed by cold weather; snow