Continuing my effort to demystify a few things as I learn about tying, I've discovered I'm not quite confident in my knowledge of hares' masks.

In the various books and online sources I've seen, reference is made to "guard hairs". I interpret this phrase to mean the long, spiky hairs that extend past the underfur of the critter. Is this right?

Next, I see a bunch of patterns that instruct you to take hair from specific parts of the mask, such as the ears, face and area of the head between the ears. Are the characteristics of the hair/fur that different between these areas? I haven't man-handled the mask I was gifted yet, but a quick visual inspection doesn't give me any obvious clues.

Another question is how much of a color difference is there between masks naturally? I've only been exposed to one thus far (the aforementioned gift) and am weighing the benefits of picking up a couple others. A lot of color variation would make that decision a no-brainer.

Still another question is how many flies might one reasonably expect to tie with a single mask?

And lastly, does anyone care to share their natural fur dubbing wisdom? My only dubbing experience at this time has been with using a synthetic dry fly dubbing. From what I can see, fur and hair are a different animal.

Thanks again for any guidance that comes in!