Note 372 — NEW ENGLISH CANAAN OR NEW CANAAN. (continued 2)

The Conyes are Hares, the small ones of the “Southerne parts” being the little Gray Hare or Wood Rabbit (Lepus sylvaticus) of southern New England. Those of “the North” are the Varying Hare (Lepus Americanus), or White Rabbit, which is brown in summer and white in winter. The reference to black ones is an error, wild black hares being unknown except in cases of Melanism, which are of extremely rare occurrence. We have no species of hare which is black. Rabbit, it may be added, is a name not strictly applicable to any indigenous mammal of America, it being the vernacular specific designation of an Old World species of hare.