About Irish Mammals. 347 



the change to white in your hares if there should be any snow, and the 

 weight I know you will attend to. That curious rat with black back 

 and shoulders looks very like a hybrid, and in any case was a great 

 curiosity. I hope it has been preserved. The best book for your 

 purpose of studying the native Flora is Hooker's Students' Flora. 

 Hooker and Arnott is quite out of date. 



{February 22nd.} By all means follow up the Bats. There is no 

 branch offering a better chance of rarities. The Great Horse-shoe B. 



might turn up in your neighbourhood I shall be most happy 



to examine any you can capture. 



March i2th. 



DEAR BARRETT-HAMILTON, I return you at once the note which 

 you enclosed, and I think it will do very well for "The Field," as a 

 feeler or enquiry. But I should wait and make some more observations 

 on the size and change to winter coat before writing to " The Zoolo- 

 gist." I would suggest your measuring the size of the white patch 

 above the tail in a number of hares, and how far up the legs does the 

 white colour reach, how much of the ears is white, and how far does the 

 amount of white on legs, back, and ears correspond on different speci- 

 mens ? Also, is there more white on young or old, or male or female 

 specimens ? You will be able to see, this vacation, whether the white 

 has disappeared in April or not. Being a resident, it is better for you 

 not to send a mere casual note. Better wait and get up a good, pains- 

 taking paper, and put in weights if you like. But speed is more a 

 matter for " The Field," and I hope you will there draw out some other 



observations I should offer a reward for any larger Bat that 



your neighbours can find, barring the Long-eared So you ought 



to obtain the Hairy-armed, which is not very unlike the Pipistrelle, only 



much larger Ought you not now to prepare lists of your 



plants, &c., all that you know, and also of those likely to be found near 

 New Ross ? Practice skinning birds, bats, mice, shrews, &c. See if 

 you have any other kind of Newt besides the common smooth sort. . . . 

 I did not know that Otters eat birds, but in Bell's " British Quadrupeds" 

 it is said to "attack lambs, sucking pigs, and poultry." A note on 

 your experience of its eating ducks would be worth sending to "The 

 Zoologist." 



(April $th.} Now is the time to make a good start with large, full- 

 sized specimens. It is never worth while to keep small scraps 



I hope that you will this year set up a proper drying plant-press, with 

 paper 16 inches long, so as to be able to preserve the whole plant. How 

 are you getting on with your Bat-hunting ? The annexed table of 

 extent of wings may perhaps help you, and there remains yet something 

 to be done in measuring the wings. Our books do not agree, and I wish 

 you would take the trouble to measure carefully and exactly the width 

 of males and females separately, of any number of even the commonest 



