MOUNTAIN MAMMALS 65 



must remember that colour is often a very variable 

 character, that white animals very often turn up 

 among coloured races, and that seasonal shedding of 

 the hair is very common. Given these facts, we have 

 no great difficulty in understanding in a general way 

 how success and survival would reward those Stoats 

 and Mountain Hares which possessed a constitutional 

 tendency to grow white fur in very cold surroundings. 

 It is not any longer a plasticity of individuals : it has 

 become a race character, but it seems to require a 

 trigger-pulling influence from without namely, 

 severe cold. When that is absent, as in Ireland, the 

 Mountain Hare does not change its colour in winter. 



The Common Hare is often seen on the shoulders 

 of the hills, and the same may be said of the Fox and 

 the Polecat. The roving Otter sometimes rests 

 among the stones of a cairn on its journey from one 

 river valley to another. But instead of dwelling on 

 these we would pass to the Red Deer, which are at 

 certain seasons very characteristic of the mountains. 



The Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) is at home in 

 Britain, in the Scottish Highlands, on Exmoor, and 

 in the county of Kerry; it occurs in various parts of 

 Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa. It is a 

 magnificent animal, the male standing four feet high 

 at the withers, the female about six inches less. The 

 general colour is dark brown, with a yellowish patch 

 on the rump, more marked in summer than in winter. 

 As in all ordinary cud-chewing animals (cattle, sheep, 

 and deer), there are no upper teeth in front of the 

 mouth, the lower front teeth cutting the grass against 

 a horny pad above ; but the Red Deer can bite severely 

 enough. There is a curious face-gland below the eye 



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