Mr. Thompson on the Irish Hare. 269 



With respect to the points of economy to which allusion has not already been 

 made, and to habits generally, there is a very great similarity between the two 

 species. Thus the places selected for the " form" are the same, as are those 

 for the reception of the young, the number of the latter, except in extra- 

 ordinary cases, being four or five. By intelligent gamekeepers, both are consi- 

 dered to produce five times in the course of the year. When the parent has 

 been killed, I have seen the young extracted with their eyes fully open, and 

 within the first hour of their untimely birth, able to run about. Towards the 

 end of the third week the leverets are said to be independent of their parent ; 

 und at this time, what Daniel in his Rural Sports remarks of the English hares 

 equally applies to the Irish, that " when we meet with one young hare, we are 

 almost certain of finding more within a small distance." 



The Irish hare changes its quarters according to the weather, leaving situations 

 exposed to cold winds for more sheltered places. 



In the choice of food I am not aware of any difference between the two 

 species. In the severity of winter, when the Irish hares betake themselves to 

 the flower-garden, the delicate leaves of the pink or carnation are especial favou- 

 rites ; in the kitchen-garden, parsley and the more tender varieties of cabbage, 

 young plants of the cauliflower and broccoli, being preferred to any of the 

 coarser kinds ; and in young plantations, consisting of an average number of 

 species of deciduous forest trees, I have particularly remarked their predilection 

 for the oak, not another species being touched, until the whole of these had been 

 first barked. 



Mr. Bell observes that the English hare " swims well, and takes the water 

 readily, not for the purpose of escaping from pursuit merely, but for the sake of 

 obtaining a plentiful supply of food." This applies equally well to the Irish 

 hare, with the exception of the last clause of the sentence, for which I cannot 

 vouch, though I have no doubt of its accuracy also ; a friend, when quietly 

 angling, having once observed a hare that was quite undisturbed enter and swim 

 across the deep pool of a mountain stream, though by going a very short way 

 lower down she could have passed in the usual manner. 



When collecting marine productions, in company with Mr. Hyndman, about 

 the entrance to Strangford Lough, in January, 1835, we at different times in 

 one day started two hares that were lying very far out upon low rocks, upon 



