Mr. Thompson on the Irish Hare. 267 



approximate species. The Lepus timidus sometimes, though rarely, becomes 

 white, Uke various other animals ; the Lepus variabilis annually appears so at 

 the beginning of winter, throughout which it so continues. The Lepus Hiber- 

 nicus, on the other hand, assumes this colouring with age. This inference I 

 was at first inclined to draw from the fact, that it was only in preserves, or 

 where they were unmolested, that I remarked them to be parti-coloured, or 

 almost pure white ; their enemies, where they are not protected, being so nume- 

 rous, as to prevent the attainment of their natural term of life.* To the same 

 effect I have the evidence of a most intelligent game-keeper, who states, that 

 hares turned out young into a demesne in the County of Down, and marked by 

 a piece being taken out of their ears, regularly became white in the hinder parts 

 during the fifth spring ; in the sixth this colour extended over the sides ; in the 

 seventh they were all white but the head ; and in the eighth, he thinks, pure 

 white. In all these stages but the last, they have occurred to myself. In a 

 park in the County of Antrim, he has made similar remarks, though without 

 the precise datum afforded in the first Instance. Here he judges from hares 

 frequenting particular haunts gradually presenting the white appearance just 

 described, and which I am inclined to believe is occasioned by a change of colour 

 in the existing fur. About the month of February the whiteness of garb exhi- 

 bited from the fifth to the eighth year begins to appear, and is borne through 

 March and April, when the annual change of fur takes place, and the white is 

 thrown off" for that of ordinary colour. 



In the Belfast Museum there is a specimen (from Shane's Castle-Park, 

 County of Antrim) which retains the ordinary colour only on the upper portion 

 of the head and front of the ears, the tips, as in the Alpine hare in winter garb, 

 retaining their blackness. The entire of the remainder, except a small portion at 

 the base of the fore-legs, tinged with pale fawn colour, appears of a pure white ; 

 but on close examination exhibits along the back, and on the breast, unchanged 

 in colour, some long black hairs ;f the lips are whitish. 



* In the note by Mr. Bennet, of which part has been already quoted, it is remarked, but with- 

 out any reason being assigned for it, that the Irish hare is " apt to become white in winter when 

 kept in parks or other enclosures," p. 128. 



f These " long hairs" which have been described as altogether wanting in the Irish species, exist 

 in every specimen I have examined, but are extremely few in number, compared with those in the 

 common hare. 



