76 The Irish Naturalist, [March, 



At Vaynol, near Bangor, North Wales, Irish, Scotch, and English hares 

 all do well, although Mr. G. W. D. Assheton-Smith informs me that 

 neither of the former seem to associate with the latter species. At 

 Vaynol the Scotch hares are on the hills and the Irish in the park. 



Finally, there is Lord Fermoy's statement {supra, p. 70) that Irish 

 hares have been turned down on the coursing grounds of Gosforth in 

 England, regarding which Mr. T. Snowden, lately Secretary to the 

 Gosforth Park Coursing Club, has been good enough to inform me that 

 although he does not recollect that any hares from Fermoy were ever 

 turned down at Gosforth Park, the Club had for several years a large 

 number from the late Mr. G. G. Alexander of Dalkey, near Dublin, 

 which were obtained from his shootings in Ireland — " none of them 

 were the Blue Mountain Hare. They were a little smaller than our 

 hares, and the same dun colour as a rabbit. For coursing purposes they 

 were quite as good as our English hares. They bred within the Park 

 (500 acres), but were not prolific. They never crossed with our Brown 

 hares, in fact, they would not go near them, but kept by themselves as 

 much as possible." Finally, for some years after coursing ceased to be 

 carried on at Gosforth Park these hares were occasionally shot both in 

 the Park and on neighbouring farms outside it, but Mr. Snowden thinks 

 they must be now extinct as he has not heard of any having been seen 

 lately. Corroborating Mr. Snowden's information anent the Irish 

 hares turned down at Gosforth, Mr. N. Dunn states that they came 

 from the Wicklow mountains. 



Introduction of Scotch Hares in Irki^and and South Scoti^and. 



Scotch hares hsive probably been frequently introduced into Ireland, 

 notably at the Coursing Grounds of Black Brae, in Co. Londonderry, 

 for which information I am indebted to the late Mr. E. G. Pennington. 



In the South of Scotland, as I am informed by Mr. Robert Service 

 {lit. cit. supra), "all the Alpine hares of the country south of a line 

 betwixt the firths of Forth and Clyde are the produce of animals intro- 

 duced from the North within quite recent years. They have not by any 

 means reached the limits of their probable distribution as yet. They are 

 still spreading annually, both lower and wider" (1895). 



Brown Hares have been introduced into Harris and some of the Orkney 

 Islands, and have in most cases done well, except where exterminated 

 by man. In Harris and in the latter islands they have to associate with 

 the Blue Hare — also an introduced species in Harris, but which had died 

 out in the Orkneys, and has been recently re-introduced. Much valu- 

 able information on these and other matters connected with hares will 

 be found in Messrs. J. A. Harvie-Brown and T. E. Buckley's volumes' on 

 the Fauna of Scotland. 



Kilmannock, New Ross, Co. Wexford. 



' See " A Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides," pp. 38 and 39, and 

 "A Vertebrate Fauna of the Orkney Islands," p. 86. 



