Erasmus used the words mad as a marsh hare, claiming that “hares are wilder in the marshes from the absence of hedges and cover.” But Chaucer had the phrase mad as a hare before him, and march hare seems to have preceded marsh hare in use. Buck hares are wild frolickers in March, their breeding season, which has made them a synonym for lunacy for centuries. Lewis Carroll gave the expression new life with his creation of the March Hare in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.