[Footnote 194: Of the three kinds of hares mentioned by Varro the "common Italian kind" was _L. timidus_, a roast shoulder of which Horace vaunts as a delicacy: the Alpine hare was _L. variabilis_, which grows white on the approach of winter: and the _cuniculus_ was the common rabbit known to our English ancestors as the coney. Strabo records (Casaub, 144) that the inhabitants of the Gymnesian (Balearic) Islands in Spain sent a deputation to Augustus to request a military force to exterminate the pest of rabbits, for such was their multitude that the people were being crowded out of their homes by them, in which their plight was that of modern Australia. They were usually hunted in Spain with muzzled ferrets imported from Africa.] [Footnote 195: The edible snail, _helix pomatia_, L., is still an article of commerce in France and Italy. They prey upon vines and give evidence of their appreciation of the best by abounding in the vineyards of the _Cote d'or_, the ancient Burgundy. There at the end of summer they are gathered for the double purpose of protecting the vines and delighting the epicure: are then stored in a safe place until cold weather, when they considerately seal up their own shells with a calcareous secretion and so are shipped to market. Here is the recipe for 'escargots à la bourguignonne,' which despite the prejudice engendered by _Leviticus_ (XI, 30.) may be recommended to the American palate jaded by beefsteak and potatoes and the high cost of living: "Mettre les escargots a bouillir pendant 5 a 10 minutes dans de l'eau salée, les retirer de leur coquille, les laver a l'eau froide pour les debarrasser du limon, les cuire dans un court-bouillon fortement assaisonné. Apres cuisson les replacer dans le coquille bien nettoyee, en les garnissant au fond et par dessus d'une farce de beurre frais manipule avec un fin hachis de persil, cerfeuil, ail, echalote, sel et poivre. Avant de servir, faire chauffer au four."] [Footnote 196: Reading LXXX _quadrantes_. A comparison may be made of this capacity with that of the ordinary snail known to the Romans, for their smallest unit of liquid measure was called a _cochlear_, or snail shell, and contained.02 of a modern pint, or, as we may say, a spoonful: indeed the French word _cuiller_ is derived from _cochlear_.] [Footnote 197: It is perhaps well to remind the American reader that the European dormouse (_Myoxus glis_. Fr. _loir_. Ger. _siebenschlafer_) is rather a squirrel than a mouse, and that he is still esteemed a dainty edible, as he was by the Romans: indeed when fat, just before he retires to hibernate, he might be preferred to 'possum and other strange dishes on which some hospitable Americans regale themselves and the patient palates of touring Presidents. In his treatise _De re culinaria_ Apicius gives a recipe for a ragout of dormice which sounds appetizing.]