yo The Irish Naturalist. [March, 



Co. Cork. 



I am indebted to my correspondent, Captain J. J. Dunne, for the 

 information that many years ago the late Mr. Hyde turned down many 

 English Hares at Castle Hyde, near Fermoy. These were at least not quite 

 failures, for Captain Dunne saw their descendants years after in Convan- 

 more. Other correspondents corroborate this information, and add that 

 the introduction took place about forty years ago, and that the exact 

 locality was at Cregg North demesne, near Castle Hyde. " They throve 

 and bred with the Irish Hares, but, as after a few years proper steps were 

 not taken to preserve the hares [they] were killed from time to time, and 

 for the past twenty years no English Hare has been seen, and there are 

 now very few hares of any breed in either locality." 



The last paragraph also applies to an introduction of English Hares, 

 which is stated to have taken place about fifty years ago in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ballyhooley, and for which the Listowel family were 

 responsible. This information reached me througii Mr. E- A. Pennington, 

 and, as at Castle Hyde, the introduced animals bred and throve well 

 until they were killed off by man. 



The father of the present Lord Clonbrock was informed by the late Lord 

 Shannon, about the year 1852, that he had brought in English Hares to 

 Castlemart3^r, Co. Cork, and that they were doing well, but Lord Clonbrock 

 does not know how long they survived, though he heard a year or two 

 ago that another introduction was going to take place at Castlemartyr, 

 which looks, as Lord Clonbrock remarks, as if the experiment had at 

 least partially succeeded. 



English Hares were introduced at the Trabulgan (Co. Cork) Coursing 

 Grounds, by Lord Fermoy. 



With regard to these hares, the following interesting letter was 

 written by Lord Fermoy to the Field of April 14, 1888 (p. 527) :— " In 

 the year 1882 I imported a number of hares from Elvedon,and put them 

 down at Trabulgan. For two seasons they were coursed with the Irish 

 Hares at Trabulgan. I took great interest in these English Hares, and 

 made up my mind that they went faster than the Irish Hare until the 

 dogs reached them. This is very easily accounted for, as they are much 

 larger animals than the Irish Hare, and cover more ground in their 

 stride ; but after the dogs reached them they were not nearly such good 

 animals as the Irish Hare, as the latter turns in so much smaller space, is 

 so much quicker off the turn, and is so very stout-hearted. She is 

 never beaten until the greyhound has her in his mouth. On one 

 occasion I heard an Irish trainer say to another at Trabulgan, at the end 

 of a stake, ' I hope I'll get one of them English hares, as my dog can go 

 the fastest ; but he will be bate if it comes to working.' 



" A few years since I sold one hundred Irish Hares to the Gosforth 

 Park Coursing Committee, and I believe these Irish Hares there proved 

 Jiow hard they were to kill, and how stout-hearted. 



