182 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



Jolin Colquhoun's time it had become extinct there, although 

 foi-merly common in the River Stinchar. 



Family Leporidce. 



31. Lepus europoeus, Pall. — Common Hare. From the new 

 Statistical Account (1845) it is clear that this species was 

 much more numerous then than now, the reports from many 

 parishes showing that it was very plentiful, in some places to 

 the extent of being a nuisance to fanners. It is still a common 

 species, and is a familiar sight in some places quite near 

 Glasgow, such as Cathcart and Caniiunnock. The great stone 

 wall encircling the Hundi-ed Acre HiU at Cathcart is said to 

 have been built by a fonner laird of Aikenliead to preserve the 

 space for coursing. The Eaglesham district, about 1845, was 

 the meeting-place of the Clydesdale Coursing Club. Coursing is an 

 old-established and flourishing sport in Upper Lanarkshire, and 

 at the well-known Carnuchael Meetings hares of a very robust 

 type and of extraordinary speed occur. Packs of Harriers and 

 Beagles have in recent years hunted the Hamilton and Strath- 

 aven districts. In the islands the species has been introduced 

 into Arran since Pennant's time ; it was in Bute then and is there 

 now; in the Great Cumlirae it once existed, but had dis- 

 appeared by 1845, and a few are now again on this island. 

 It has been known to stray within the bounds of Glasgow, and 

 I saw one, thoroughly wild and scared, in the Queen's Park on 

 28th February, 1901. A Hybrid between this species and the 

 Mountain Hare from Dumbarton Muir was shown to this Society 

 by Mr. James Lumsden on 9th January, 1877. 



32. L. TIMIDUS, L. — Mountain-Hare. This species is named 

 in the old Statistical Account (1791) from the jiarish of Luss 

 alone, and in the new Statistical Account (1845) from Buchanan, 

 Arrochar, Kilmun, Dunoon, Inverchaolain, and Inveraray. In 

 the last-named parish it is said to have appeared about 1839. 

 John Colquhoun writes that one observed by him in 1822 near 

 the top of Ben Yoirla (? Voii'lich) was the first he had seen in 

 the Loch Lomond district, but by 1873 they were numerous. 

 In 1861 the species was introduced at Glenbuck (Ayrshire); by 

 1867 it was plentiful near Muirkirk, and rapidly increasing on 

 the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire borderland. Mountain-Hares are 



