Mr. Thompson on the Irish Hare. 261 



The very erroneous idea prevails in some quarters that the hare of Ireland 

 was not known to differ from that of England, until the subject was introduced 

 in London in the year 1 833. Respecting the former animal, Mr. Bell observes, 

 that " it is certainly a very remarkable circumstance that it should have remained 

 unnoticed until so late a period, and can only be accounted for by the fact, 

 that it is the only hare found in Ireland, and that therefore the opportunity of 

 comparison did not frequently occur," (p. 342.) The difference between the hare 

 of Ireland, and that of England and Scotland, has however, though not com- 

 mitted to the press, been long known in this country to the oldest sportsmen, 

 dealers in animal skins, and such other persons as had the opportunity of 

 examining them.* Yet, strange to say, to naturalists generally, what is here 

 quoted from the "British Quadrupeds" correctly applies ; the subject having been 

 for the first time introduced to the scientific world at the period to which allusion 

 has been made. 



With the club of the Linnasan Society I happened to dine upon the day on 

 which the specimens were received from Lord Derby, (then Lord Stanley, ) and 

 on the evening of which the subject of the Irish hare was first brought forward. 

 On being questioned by the chairman, I had then the pleasure of stating as a 

 fact well known in the north of Ireland, all the external, and likewise the 

 culinary difFerencesf existing between the hares of the two countries, but at 



* On account of the difference between these animals in the two countries, the late David 

 Ker, Esq., upwards of thirty years ago had some hares brought from England, and turned out on the 

 largest of the three Copeland Islands, off the coast of Down, where, however, they did not much 

 increase, and long since became extinct. About twenty years ago, a sporting friend, when visiting 

 the island of Islay, off the coast of Argyleshire, killed several individuals of the Irish hare, as well as 

 of the indigenous one, and on pointing out the former to some persons resident in the island, was in- 

 formed that they were not any novelty, as the species had been introduced from Ireland by the chief 

 proprietor of the island, but at what period I have not learned. It may be in reference to these, that 

 Daniel, in his "Rural Sports," observes, with respect to the size of hares in different parts of the 

 British Islands, that " the smallest are in the Isle of Islay." In a journal kept by that distinguished 

 naturalist, the late John Templeton, in which criticisms on the works he read, and observations on 

 passing events, as well as on objects of natural history, are recorded, I find the following note under 

 date of Jan. 10, 1807. With reference to the different quality of the fur in hares mentioned in 

 I^essep's Travels in Kamtschatka, it is remarked — " It is known that the Scotch hares have a fine 

 wool fit for making hats, while the fur of the Irish hare is not accounted of any use." 



\ The Scotch and English hares are at every age, and for all culinary purposes, generally 

 esteemed superior as food to the Irish. 



