74 The Irish Naturalist. [March, 



In the memoir alluded to above, Dr. Scharfi remarks that 

 " the difficulty of establishing the English hare permanently" 

 in Ireland, *' is altogether unconnected with climate or food," 

 and that he believes that the distribution of the two species 

 in Europe generally seems to indicate that they will not live 

 together {pp. cit. i., pages 435 and 471). 



If this be so, and if, as Dr. ScharfF believes, the English Hare 

 is probably the stronger of the two species, then, all other 

 things being equal, we should expect introductions of the 

 English Hare into Ireland to be extremel}^ successful, since in 

 that country, not only is the native hare a presumably weaker 

 species, but whole tracts of country are quite without hares 

 at all. 



On analysis of the twelve instances of the introduction of 

 Brown Hares into Ireland, of which I have been able to give 

 some particulars, this is found to be the case. Of these intro- 

 ductions ten may, I think, be regarded as authenticated — 

 viz., those which took place at Copeland Island, Trabulgan, 

 Powerscourt, Cleenish Island, Strabane, Castle Hyde, Fer- 

 managh, Baronscourt, Castlemart^^r and Lurgan. On further 

 examination, however, it is at once evident that in several 

 instances the imported animals were never really given a fair 

 chance of establishing themselves in their new homes, and 

 particularly in the case of Copeland and Cleenish Islands, 

 where the hares were confined to a narrow space, and probably 

 also artificially fed. At Trabulgan the hares were imported 

 expressly to be killed by coursing ; at Powerscourt the}^ w^ere 

 either injured in the transit to Ireland, or were killed as soon 

 as they left the protection of the demesne, and similarlj^ in 

 most of the remaining instances their extermination was only 

 brought about by man himself Yet, in .spite of the efforts 

 of their enemies, whether legal or illegal, to destroy them, 

 w^e have evidence — in many of the cases which I have cited — 

 of their power to become permanently established when given 

 a fair chance, and the success of the Strabane introduction 

 is alone a sufiicient proof of this. 



The refusal of the English Hares to associate with the Irish 

 species as reported in more than one instance, is of interest, 

 and tends to support Dr. Scharft's views that the two species 

 are antagonistic, and that the Brown Hare being the stronger 



