European hare adaptions for high speed running in hares include wider nostrils and larger hearts. In comparison to the European rabbit, the hare has a proportionally smaller stomach and caecum. This hare is one of the largest of the lagomorphs. Its head and body length can range from with a tail length of . The body mass is typically between . The hare's elongated ears range from from the notch to tip. It also has long hind feet that have a length of between . The skull has nasal bones that are short, but broad and heavy. The supraorbital ridge has well-developed
European rabbit intended meaning. Like the Phoenicians, neither the later Greek nor Roman colonizers had a specific name for the rabbit, because the species is not native to Greece and Italy (though it is present there nowadays). They commonly called it "small hare" and "small digging hare", in contrast to the European hare, which is larger and doesn't make burrows. Catullus used the name "cuniculus" (a latinization of the Iberian word "kiniklos" and the etymological origin of the Castilian name "conejo", Portuguese "coelho" and Catalan "conill", and the old English name, "coney"), and referenced its abundance in Celtiberia by calling this region