326 LEPORID.E— LEPUS 



siderable interest, is not properly established geographically (see 

 below, p. 334). 



Terminology and local names : — See under Lepus europtzns (p. 251). 



History: — Hares must have been abundant in Ireland from pre- 

 historic times. They take their place with other animals in the old 

 hunting legends, and are mentioned in the tract " De mirabilibus 

 Sacrae Scripturae," believed to have been written about A.D. 650, by the 

 Irish ecclesiastic Augustin (Proc. Roy. Irish Acad., vii., 1862, 518): — 

 " Quis enim, verbi gratia, lupos, cervos, et sylvaticos porcos, et vulpes, 

 taxones, et lepusculos, et sesquivolos in Hiberniam deveheret?" ("Who, 

 for instance, would bring wolves, deer, and wood pigs, and 

 foxes, badgers, and little hares, and 'sesquivoli' [for the meaning of 

 which, see under Squirrel] to Ireland?" The use of the diminutive 

 lepusculos instead of the ordinary lepores is curious, and it might at first 

 sight be thought that this word had reference to rabbits. The meaning 

 is, however, explained by a passage in Giraldus Cambrensis {Topo- 

 grapliia Hibemica, cap. xxiv., A.D. 11 83-1 186), who wrote "Sunt et 

 lepores multi, sed minuti ; cuniculis quidem tarn sui modicitati, quam 

 delicata pilositate consimiles," i.e., " There are also hares, many but 

 small ; closely resembling rabbits indeed as much in their habits as in 

 their soft fur." Giraldus thus supplies the first written description of 

 the Irish Hare ; it is accompanied by the information that these hares 

 had, like foxes, the remarkable habit of keeping to the woods and 

 coverts when hunted, instead of taking to the open. 



An early reference to the animal occurs in Hoveden's Chronica 

 (t. ii., 29, Rolls series), wherein it is related that when King Henry II. 

 landed at Crook, near Waterford, for the conquest of Ireland on 17th 

 October 1171, a white hare sprang out of some bushes, and, being 

 immediately captured, was presented to the monarch as an omen of 

 victory. This would be an exceptionally early date on which to meet 

 an Irish Hare in complete winter coat, so that the animal may have 

 been an albino. 



In a list of Irish exports of about 1430, the skins of the " Irish Hare" 

 appear, with those of other animals. (See above, p. 189, and also under 

 Squirrel.) 



Fynes Morrison, who lived in 1 559-1603, described the Irish grey- 

 hounds as being so high that they overbear the hares, which were in 

 " great plenty," when they have turned them (Falkiner's Illustrations of 

 Irish History and Topography, 1904, 223 and 324). 



In the Ancient and Present State of the County and City of Water- 

 ford, ed. i., 343, footnote, 1746, Charles Smith remarked that "it is no 

 unusual thing even in this county to meet with white hares" ; and there 

 are many later references. 



The attention of English zoologists appears to have been first drawn 



