LEPUS AMERICANUS. 307 



the most formidable of which are the lynx, fox, ermine, mink, 

 marten, fisher, eagle, the snowy and great-horned owls, and the 

 larger hawks. 



The Varying Hare derives its name from the well-known circum- 

 stance that it changes color in spring and fall being dark reddish- 

 brown in summer and snowy white in winter. Concerning the 

 method of the change much difference of opinion exists, and some 

 of the ablest of recent writers pass the point in silence. 



Pennant says : " These animals, at approach of winter, receive 

 a new coat, which consists of a multitude of loner white hairs, t\vice 



o 



as long as the summer fur, which still remains beneath." * Dr. 

 Richardson stated that, in his opinion, " the change to the winter 

 dress takes place by a lengthening and blanching of the summer fur ; 

 whilst the change in the beginning of summer consists in the winter 

 coat falling off during the growth of the new and coloured fur." f 

 This opinion comes very near the truth, but does not express the 

 whole truth. The first clause is absolutely correct ; for in the fall 

 the change certainly does occur " by a lengthening and blanching 

 of the summer fur," the individual hairs changing color after the 

 first fall of snow. This species, like the great majority of mammals, 

 is clothed with two kinds of hair a fine soft fur which densely 

 covers all parts of the body, and longer, stiffer hairs, scattered 

 through, and projecting beyond, the former. These long hairs 

 are black in summer and white in winter. In the fall of the year, 

 when the change begins, they become white at the tips first, the 

 black gradually fading from above downwards until the entire hair 

 is white. In spring the process is reversed, the exposed portion 

 of the long hairs becoming black (though the extreme tip some- 

 times remains white until the change is far advanced), which color 

 gradually extends downward, at the expense of the white, until the 

 entire hair is black. Sometimes the displacement of the white is 



* Arctic Zoology, Vol. I, 1792, p. no. 



f Fauna Boreali-Americana, Vol. I, 1829, p. 218. 



