MARCH 2 | HARES IN MARCH

Weather proverbs aren’t the only old sayings that derive from the natural world. Literature has also contributed a few. The saying “mad as a March hare,” for instance, first appeared in Chaucer’s Friar’s Tale.

Since that 14th century debut, the March hare has appeared in many other literary works including Henry Fieldings’ Tom Jones, Sir Walter Scott’s Rob Roy, and Charles Dickens’ Martin Chuzzlewit. Its most famous appearance was in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, while its most recent appearance was in the title of a collection of T.S. Eliot’s early love poems called Inventions of the March Hare.

As with so many other sayings that we’ve inherited from earlier generations, “mad as a March hare” is based on what people who spent most of their time outdoors actually saw. In March, when hares are mating, they can indeed seem crazy to human beings who happen to be watching them.

The brown hares of England, whose behavior originally motivated the saying, are actually quite sane compared to the snowshoe hares of North America. Brown hares merely chase and box, while snowshoe hares chase, kick, bite, hiss, and urinate on each other. After the snowshoe male has fought off other males, the real madness of mating begins.

He approaches the female, touches her nose, and jumps in the air. She dashes under him and runs away. He chases her until he’s almost caught her, but then she suddenly jumps in the air, swings around, and heads in the other direction. Her jump is so unexpected that the male runs right under her, and only after she’s headed in the other direction does he get himself turned around and headed after her again.

After a certain amount of chasing and jumping over each other, during which the hare in the air urinates on the hare passing underneath, the female is ready to mate. But that’s not the end of the madness. After mating, the male jumps backward, hissing and sometimes turning around in midair. The female hisses back and runs right by him, starting another chase. They may mate several more times before they’re done.

Because the familiar saying that refers to the English version of this madness persists, it serves to remind us that wild hares on both sides of the Atlantic mate in March. While we’re still waiting for spring to get here, they’re out there engaging in the seasonal behavior that was noticeable enough to our ancestors to earn the mad hares of March permanent literary fame.