Hare
Hare names 3 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Hare a family of gnawing quadrupeds
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a family of gnawing quadrupeds. There are about thirty species, widely distributed throughout the grand divisions. The family includes the common hare of Europe and a number of American species popularly known as rabbits. The hare is a comparatively tall animal depending on fleetness of foot to escape from its enemies. It breeds usually in a nest formed in a tuft of grass or under a bush, and lined with its own fur. The nest or form of the hare, as it is called, is not infrequently covered with a blanket of this loose fur under which the young are hid carefully during the mother's absence for food. When pursued until they are wearied some species do take refuge in hollow logs, brush piles, and even in burrows; but, if in burrows, in those of some other animal. The hare has no ability in excavating protective burrows of its own. All members of the family feed exclusively on vegetable food, grass, twigs, clover, lettuce, cabbage, and the bark of many trees, especially poplars and orchard trees. By referring to an article on the RABBIT the reader may see that there is a decided difference between the hare and rabbit. All our American species are hares; but they have been known as rabbits so long that it seems useless to try to correct the mistake. The European hare is a valuable game animal. Though hunted persistently with gun and dog it succeeds in living in copses and hedges even in the thickly populated farming districts of Great Britain . A favorite method of taking the hare is that of hanging snares or loops in hedge gaps through which it is accustomed to pass. In North America there are several species. Two yellowish brown species, known as the marsh hare and the water hare, are found in swamps and canebrakes from the Ohio Valley to the Gulf. These hares depend less on their ears and legs than their dry ground relatives, and frequently protect themselves by hiding in the water like a rat. The Arctic hare is found in polar regions. Its fur becomes pure white in winter. The white rabbit or northern hare is found in the northern part of the United States and northward. It is cinnamon brown in summer, becoming white at the surface in the winter time. The jackrabbit or prairie hare is an animal of the western plains. Its fur is yellowish gray in summer; in winter, white at the surface and base, with a yellowish tinge in the middle. It has a comparatively long tail and is the largest hare in North America, attaining a length of twenty-three inches. It is native to the great plains of the West, but is extending its range eastward across the Mississippi. It was such a pest in some portions of the West that the early fruit raisers and farmers found it necessary to organize for its destruction. Jackrabbit hunts were arranged. Men and dogs surrounded an enormous extent of territory and drove the rabbits by a pre-arranged plan into huge pockets or nets of woven wire. As many as 10,000 or even 20,000 animals have been slaughtered in a single day. The gray or wood rabbit, known familiarly as the cotton-tail,--the "Brer Rabbit" of Uncle Remus,--is also a hare, and is abundant throughout the United States. It is pretty well adapted to the life it leads. The farther south it lives and the less snow, the more nearly its winter color is that of dead leaves; the farther to the north and the more snow, the whiter its outer fur becomes. Its long ears enable it to hear the approach of enemies. Its strong crooked hind legs enable it to jump far and fast. Its food is abundant. If it were not for the dog, the prowling lynx, and other enemies, the rabbit's life would be free from care. Its track in newly made snow is interesting. A little examination shows that the front tracks are made by the hind legs, which swing around the others before they strike the surface. See Rabbit
Hare SIR JOHN, an English actor
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
SIR JOHN, an English actor; born in London, England, May 16, 1844. Traveled largely in the United States at the head of his own company, and was celebrated in comedy, emotional and quaint character rôles. He appeared in "The Profligate"; "The Gay Lord Quex, وو "Notorious Mrs. Ebbsmith"; "Pair of Spectacles"; and other important plays. He was knighted in 1907. HAREM (hä-rēm') (Arabic, the prohibited), a word used by Mussulmans to signify the women's apartments in a household establishment, forbidden to every man except the husband and near relations. The women of the harem may consist simply of a wife and her attendants, or there may be several wives and an indefinite number of concubines or female slaves, with black eunuchs, etc. The greatest harem is that of the Sultan of Turkey. The women of the imperial harem are generally Circassians or Georgians. The women of other Turks enjoy the society of their friends at the baths or in each other's houses, and appear in public accompanied by slaves and eunuchs; but but the women of the sultan's harem have none of these privileges. Only a comparatively few wealthy Turks now maintain harems. They have generally but one wife. HARFLEUR (är-fler') (called in the Middle Ages Hareflot), a town of France, department of Seine-Inférieure; on the estuary of the Seine; 4 miles E. of Havre. Formerly Harfleur was an important seaport and maritime fortress, but the rise of Havre, coupled with the sanding up of its harbor, led to its decay. It was taken after a six weeks' siege by the English under Henry V. in 1415, and during the next 25 years changed hands three times. It was pillaged by the Huguenots in 1562 .
Hare AUGUSTUS JOHN CUTH- BERT, an English descriptive writer
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
AUGUSTUS JOHN CUTH- BERT, an English descriptive writer; born in Rome, Italy, March 13, 1834. He was a graduate of Oxford. The son of his a rich father, he was enabled from earliest youth to gratify a taste for travel, on descriptions of which his fame efchiefly rests. Among his happiest forts are: "A Winter at Mentone" (1861); "Walks in Rome" (1870); "Wanderings in Spain" (1872); "Walks Paris" in London" (1877); "Days Near (1887); and a narrative of travel in southern France. A volume of personal recollections (1895) has been widely read. Died 1903.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's 1910 account files hares among the "gnawing quadrupeds" — that is, the rodents — but zoologists soon separated them: hares, rabbits and pikas are now placed in their own order, Lagomorpha, a split argued in 1912 on the evidence of skull and tooth structure and long since confirmed by molecular work. The 1910 writer also insisted that "all our American species are hares" and that calling them rabbits was a hopeless mistake; modern classification went the other way, keeping true hares and jackrabbits in the genus Lepus while the cottontails, born blind and helpless in a fur-lined nest, are genuine rabbits in Sylvilagus. The mass jackrabbit drives it describes, with 10,000 or 20,000 animals killed in a day, belong to the past, though jackrabbits are still shot as pests. In Britain the brown hare is no longer simply "a valuable game animal": numbers have fallen sharply under modern arable farming, and hare coursing with dogs was outlawed by the Hunting Act of 2004.
Written for this edition, 2026.