130 COLIN CLOUT'S CALENDAR. 



the varying hare, the Alpine hare, and the blue hare of 

 Scotland. In size it stands about midway between the 

 common hare and the rabbit ; but it differs greatly from 

 both in color, general appearance, and instinctive habits. 

 Throughout the summer months the blue hare is clad in 

 a suit of tawny gray fur, with a slight admixture of longer 

 black hairs ; and as it runs, the shifting lights upon its 

 back and sides produce a faintly bluish effect to the eye, 

 which has gained for it perhaps the commonest among 

 its numerous popular names. In winter, however, it 

 changes color, like the ptarmigan and most other sub- 

 arctic species becoming snow-white all over, except the 

 very tips of its ears, which still remain a lustrous black. 

 It does not burrow nor make a form, but shelters itself 

 in natural crannies of the rock : in this respect agreeing 

 rather with the more primitive and central group of 

 rodents, and exhibiting less specialization of instinct than 

 either the common hare or the rabbit, which have clearly 

 acquired more developed habits in accordance with their 

 long practice of dwelling among the great open temper- 

 ate plains most affected by man and by the hunting car- 

 nivores dogs, wolves, ferrets, stoats, and weasles. 



The interest attaching to the blue hare is somewhat 

 akin to that which attaches to the red grouse, as involv- 

 ing a curious problem in geographical distribution. Bat 

 the cases may be regarded as to some extent the converse 

 of one another ; for, while the red grouse is altogether 

 peculiar to Britain, the blue hare is found in scattered 

 and isolated colonies over a wide extent of Europe and 

 Asia. It turns up again, essentially the same, in the 

 Swiss Alps, in Scandinavia, in Russian Lapland, in 

 Siberia, and in Kamtchatka. At present the Alpine and 

 Scotch colonies at least are separated from the central 

 mainguard of the species in the sub-arctic regions by wide 



