154 Practical Game Preserving. 



than timidus, and it goes through the process of changing its 

 coat to white during the winter months, which renders it 

 most noteworthy. The change is gradual, commencing from 

 the middle to the end of September. The feet change first, 

 the white passing upwards over the legs, and gradually 

 extending until all but the back is white, this portion of the 

 body maintaining its summer colouring longest, until some- 

 what suddenly the process is completed, and the whole 

 animal becomes of a beautiful glossy white, the tips of the 

 ears alone remaining black. The process is not in this case a 

 shedding of the coat, but is an actual change of colour in the 

 fur. But the return to the mountain hare's natural hue is 

 really a shedding of the fur, commencing generally in March, 

 and being completed about the second week in May. The 

 Irish hare (Hibernicus), on the other hand, is of similar colour 

 to the common variety, but is considerably smaller than even 

 the mountain hare, and is consequently greatly inferior in 

 point of size to Lepus timidus. In habits they differ scarcely 

 at all. The " Scotchmen," however, vary in their ways in a 

 sufficiently obvious direction, but practically the common 

 hare may be regarded as a type of all three. The hare 

 is almost as deserving of the epithet ubiquitous as is the 

 rabbit, for although the latter may be more numerous 

 throughout the country, it is not more general than the hare, 

 which will thrive and multiply anywhere, so that it be 

 afforded a due measure of protection from man, beast, or 

 bird of predacious habit. True it is that in some districts 

 hares are apt to become extremely scarce for spaces of time 

 more or less prolonged, but this is more often the fault of the 

 owners and tenants of the land than due to mere unsuit- 



