Audubon's Mammals/MAMMALS1_3.BIN/dp/0002/00020.txt

Text File | 1992-08-25 | 37KB | 551 lines

$Unique_ID{QAD00020}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Northern Hare     (Snowshoe Hare)}
$Subject{Northern Hare     (Snowshoe Hare); Lepus; Americanus}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of North America:  Volume III}
$Volume{Vol. 3:93-106}
$Genus{Lepus}
$Species{Americanus}
$Common_Name{Northern Hare}
$Log{
Plate XI*00020P1.scf
Plate XII*00020P2.scf
Genus*00005.txt}

       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       A U D U B O N ' S   M A M M A L S

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.

                                      AND

                     The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.

                  -------------------------------------------
                                    VOL.  I.
                        --------------------------------


                          LEPUS AMERICANUS.--Erxleben.


                                 NORTHERN HARE.
                                [Snowshoe Hare]

         PLATE XI.--Fig. 1, MALE; Fig. 2, YOUNG FEMALE.  Summer Pelage.
         PLATE XII.--Winter Pelage.


     L. hyeme albus; pilis tricoloribus, apice albis, ad radices coeruleis,
medio fulvis; aestate, supra rufo-fuscus, infra albus, auribus capite paullo
brevioribus; L. Sylvatica paullo robustior.  L. Glacialis minor.


                                  CHARACTERS.

     Size, larger than the gray rabbit (Lepus Sylvaticus), less than the Polar
hare; (L. Glacialis).  Colour in summer, reddish-brown above, white beneath; in
winter, white; roots of the hairs, blue; nearer the surface, fawn-colour, and
the tips, white; ears, a little shorter than the head.


                                   SYNONYMES.

     LIEVRE (Quenton Malisia), Sagard Theodat, Canada, p. 747. 1636.
     SWEDISH HARE, Kalm's Travels in North America, vol. ii., p. 45. 1749.
     AMERICAN HARE, Philos. Trans., London, vol. lxii., pp. 11, 376. 1772.
     LEPUS AMERICANUS, Erxleben, Syst. regni Animalis, p. 330. 1777.
     LEPUS NANUS, Schreber, vol. ii., p. 881, pl. 234, fig.
     LEPUS HUDSONIUS, Pallas, Glires, pp. 1, 30.
     VARYING HARE, Pennant, Arct. Zool., vol. i., p. 95.
     LEPUS VIRGINIANUS, Harlan, Fauna, p. 196. 1825.
     LEPUS VARIABILIS, var. Godman, Nat. Hist., vol. ii., p. 164.
     AMERICAN VARYING HARE, Doughty, Cabinet Nat. Hist., vol. i., p. 217,
       pl. 19, Autumn pelage.
     THE NORTHERN HARE, Audubon, Ornithological Biog., vol. ii., p. 469.  Birds
       of America, pl. 181 (in the talons of the Golden Eagle), Winter pelage.
     LEPUS AMERICANUS, Richardson, Fauna Boreali A., p. 217.
     LEPUS VIRGINIANUS, Bach, Acad. Nat. Sciences, Philadelphia, vol. vii.,
       p. 301.
     LEPUS AMERICANUS, Bach, Ib., p. 403, and Ib., vol. viii., p. 76.
     LEPUS AMERICANUS, Dekay, Nat. Hist. State of New-York, p. 95, pl. 26.


                                  DESCRIPTION.

     Incisors, pure white, shorter and smaller than in L. Glacialis; upper ones
moderately grooved; the two posterior upper incisors very small.  The margins of
the orbits project considerably, having a distinct depression in the frontal
bone; this is more conspicuous in the old than in the younger animals.  Head
rather short; nose blunt, eyes large and prominent; ears placed far back, and
near each other; whiskers, long and numerous; body, elongated, thickly clothed
with long loose hair, with a soft downy fur beneath; legs, long; hind-legs,
nearly twice the length of the fore-legs; feet, thickly clothed with hair,
completely concealing the nails, which are long, thin, very sharp, and slightly
arched.  So thickly are the soles covered with hair, that an impression by the
nails is not generally visible in their tracks made while passing over the snow,
unless when running very fast.  Tail, very short, covered with fur, but not very
bushy.  The form of this species is on the whole not very elegant; its long hind
legs, although remarkably well adapted for rapid locomotion, and its diminutive
tail, would lead the spectator at first sight to pronounce it an awkward animal;
which is, nevertheless, far from being the fact.  Its fur never lies smooth and
compact, either in winter or summer, as does that of many other species, but
seems to hang loosely on its back and sides, giving it a somewhat shaggy
appearance.  The hair on the body is in summer about an inch and a half long,
and in winter a little longer.


                                  COLOUR.

     In summer, the whole of the upper surface is reddish-brown, formed by hairs
that are at their roots and for two-thirds of their length of a blueish ash
colour, then reddish-yellow, succeeded by a narrow line of dark-brown, the part
next the tips or points, reddish-brown, but nearly all the hairs tipped with
black--this colour predominating toward the rump.  Whiskers, mostly black, a few
white, the longest reaching beyond the head; ears, brown, with a narrow black
border on the outer margin, and a slight fringe of white hairs on the inner.  In
some specimens there is a fawn, and in others a light-coloured, edge around the
eyes, and a few white hairs on the forehead.  The pupil of the eye is dark, the
iris light silvery-yellow; point of nose, chin, and under the throat, white;
neck, yellowish-brown.  Inner surface of legs, and under surface of body, white;
between the hind-legs, to the insertion of the tail, white; upper surface of the
tail, brown, under surface white.  The summer dress of this species is assumed
in April, and remains without much change till about the beginning of November
in the latitude of Quebec, and till the middle of the same month in the State of
New-York and the western parts of Pennsylvania; after which season the animal
gains its winter pelage.  During winter, in high Northern latitudes, it becomes
nearly pure white, with the exception of the black edge on the outer borders of
the ears, In the latitude of Albany, New-York, it has always a tinge of
reddish-brown, more conspicuous in some specimens than in others, giving it a
wavy appearance, especially when the animal is running, or when the fur is in
the least agitated.  In the winter season the hair is plumbeous at base, then
reddish, and is broadly tipped with white.  The parts of the body which are the
last to assume the white change, are the forehead and shoulders; we have two
winter-killed specimens before us that have the forehead, and a patch on the
shoulders, brown.  On the under surface, the fur in most specimens is white,
even to the roots.  A few long black hairs arise above and beneath the eyes, and
extend backwards.  The soles have a yellowish soiled appearance.
     We possess a specimen of the young, about half grown, which in its general
aspect resembles the adult; the colour of the back, however, is a shade darker,
and the under surface an ashy white.  The black edge is very conspicuous on the
outer rim of the ear, and some of the whiskers are of unusual length, reaching
beyond the head to the middle of the ear.  The tail is very short, black above,
and grayish-white beneath.  The young become white in the autumn of the first
year, but assume their winter colouring a little later in the season than the
adults.  We have met with some specimens in the New-York markets, late in
January, in which the change of colour was very partial, the summer pelage still
predominating.


                                  DIMENSIONS.

     The size and weight of the Northern hare we have found to vary very much.
The measurements hitherto given were generally taken from stuffed specimens,
which afford no very accurate indications of the size of the animal when living,
or when recently killed.  Dr. GODMAN, on the authority of Prince CHARLES LUCIEN
BONAPARTE, gives the measurement of a recent specimen as thirty-one inches, and
Dr. HARLAN'S measurement of the same specimen after it had been stuffed was
sixteen inches.  We think it probable that the Prince and the Doctor adopted
different modes of measuring.  All stuffed specimens shrink very much; of a
dozen now in our coll