THE MOUNTAIN OR BLUE HARE 313 



The tip of each ear is black for an extreme depth of about 30 mm. 

 externally; internally the black colour appears only as a thick rim, 

 having a width of about 5 mm. Beneath the black tip the exterior 

 half of the posterior surface and the whole of the interior is grey, 

 with the border whitish ; the rest of the ear is clothed with brown hairs 

 tipped with black, the general colour being like that of the back. The 

 outer surfaces of the limbs differ only from the back in being lighter in 

 colour, and having fewer black-tipped hairs. The soles are dusky. 

 The belly and tail are white ; the chin and upper throat, dirty white ; 

 the lower throat and upper breast resemble the back, but are of a less 

 clear tint. The line of demarcation is very uncertain and variable, 

 depending on the season. The soles are soft to the touch. 



Leverets have a woolly juvenal coat, as described on p. 162; the 

 subterminal bands of the hairs are lighter, so as to give a frosted 

 appearance. The upper side of the tail often carries a few dark 

 hairs. 



In the full winter coat, 1 which, owing to a great development of 

 the wool, is closer, fuller, and longer than that of summer, both hair 

 and wool, except on the black ear-tips, are white ; but the dorsal 

 region always retains a remnant of pigment, and parts of the backs 

 of the ears and of the face are not infrequently coloured as in summer. 

 The feet are very thickly furred. The white coat begins to appear 

 in September, and is perfected by the middle of November or the 

 beginning of December, the commencement of the process being slow, 

 the completion rapid. Any moult which takes place is so gradual and 

 difficult to observe that it may easily be overlooked, and, as stated 

 above on p. 303, its existence does not preclude direct abstraction of 

 pigment. Sometimes the animal becomes paler all over, but usually 

 the feet, with portions of the ears and of the head, are the first to 

 change ; the portions of the head which change first being the muzzle, 

 the bases of the ears, and two lines running thence, one on each side, 

 to the muzzle and including the eyes. The white colour then gradually 

 advances up the legs and flanks, first crossing the upper surface at 

 the neck, and isolating the back and part of the top of the head. 

 Meantime spots of grey or white may precede the general advance. 

 According to Collett, Norwegian hares cast the underfur after the 

 hairs in autumn, but before them in spring, when white hairs may be 

 found overlying pigmented underfur, and this appears at first sight to 

 be true of the Scottish Hare, of which specimens in moult have been 

 sent to me by Rodger ; but in these there was present, underlying 

 the long white winter coat, both pigmented hair and wool, most 



1 Karl Pearson has figured a skin of this hare for each month in the year, but his 

 descriptions have not yet been published {Albinism, 191 1, fig. YY«). Abnormal skins 

 are also figured (ZZ). 



VOL. II. X 



