The Mad March Hare

The Hare Mycomusicologist Clock (from The Hermitage)

I always wondered where the idea for the Mad March Hare came from and I guess it's something to do with their rather abnormal, or should we say, over zealous, mating behaviour in March; behaviour that is out of the ordinary (I mean, do Hare's box with each other at any other time?!!!).  Anyway, I never knew where the phrase 'hare lip' came from and always assumed it was named after the Dr who devised the surgery to correct it, or something like that..but I prefer this old legend that talks about the Hare in the moon

and the moon in anger, heating a stone that then burned the Hare's mouth, causing like Shakespeare's Flibbertigibbet a 'hare lip'. 

"This is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet: he begins

at curfew, and walks till the first cock; he gives

the web and the pin, squints the eye, and makes the

hare-lip; mildews the white wheat, and hurts the

poor creature of earth."

King Lear | Act III, scene IV

and to end, a poem by Walter de la Mare

In the black furror of a field

I saw an old witch-hare this night;
And she cocked a lissome ear,
And she eyed the moon so bright,
And she nibbled of the green;
And I whispered "Whsst! witch-hare,"
Away like a ghostie o’er the field
She fled, and left the moonlight there.on hare witchery...

Wishing you all a happy and mad March...