The rabbits and hares are closely related to one another and belonged to the order Logomorpha (Gr., logos = hare). Picas (Ochotona), sometimes called conies, of Asia and Western North America are mountain hares with the habit of storing hay, which they eat in the winter.
They form colonies, but each animal guards a territory on which he makes a pile of cut vegetation, turning it to dry in the sun. Therefore, rabbits and hares both were kept in the genus Lepus for a long time. But recently they are distinguished from each other on several points and separate generic names have been given to them, Lepus for hare and Oryctolagus for rabbit.
A number of species of Lepus are found in the different parts of the world, e.g., L. cuniculus (common hare), L. europeans (European hare), L. ruficaudatus (North Indian hare), L. nigricollis (Black napped South Indian hare), L. dayanus (desert hare), L. americanus (snow shore hare), L. arcticus (Arctic islands), etc. Fossil logomorphs are found back to the Oligocene. Few remains are known from the Eocene, but this was also distinct in the Palaeocene.
However, both of them can be distinguished on the following points:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
